7-Day Imperial Tombs Explorer: Xi'an & the Western Route

Morning — Arrival at Xi'an Xianyang International Airport
Your guide and driver meet you in the arrivals hall with a name sign and take you by private vehicle to your hotel in the city centre. The early arrival means the whole day is still ahead of you, but a long-haul flight deserves some rest first.

Afternoon — Check-in and Rest
Settle into your 4- or 5-star hotel and recover from the journey. Your guide confirms the programme for the coming days and is on hand for anything you need.

Evening — The Muslim Quarter
Dinner is in the Muslim Quarter, a grid of lanes where Hui families have sold food since the Tang dynasty: hand-pulled biangbiang noodles, cumin lamb skewers, roujiamo and sweet persimmon cakes. Afterwards walk to the Bell and Drum Tower square, where the two Ming towers are floodlit against the modern city.

Meals
Breakfast, Dinner included.

Morning — The Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum
Drive east to Lintong and stand at the edge of Pit 1, where more than six thousand life-sized soldiers face east in battle formation. Each face is different; the bronze weapons were still sharp when they came out of the ground. Your guide walks you through Pits 1, 2 and 3 and the Bronze Chariot hall, and explains how a workforce of artisans produced an army on an industrial scale in the third century BC.

Afternoon — Huaqing Palace
Continue to Huaqing Palace at the foot of Mount Li, where Emperor Xuanzong built thermal baths and pavilions for his consort Yang Guifei. The same courtyards later became the setting for the 1936 Xi'an Incident, so the site carries both the most famous love story and one of the decisive political moments of modern China.

Evening — The Grand Tang Mall
After dark, walk the Grand Tang Mall, a 2.1-kilometre pedestrian avenue of Tang-style architecture, light installations and street performance that recreates the night market of Chang'an at the height of the dynasty.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner included.

Morning — Xianyang Museum
Drive to Xianyang, capital of the Qin and later of the Western Han. The Xianyang Museum holds material from both dynasties and sets up the day: this is where the Qin administered the state that produced the terracotta army.

Afternoon — Maoling and the Tomb of Huo Qubing
Visit the Maoling mausoleum of Emperor Wu of Han, the largest of the Han imperial tombs. The main mound awaits excavation, but the nearby tomb of the general Huo Qubing is open, with its famous stone carvings.

Evening — At Leisure
Return to Xi'an. The evening is yours.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner included.

Morning — Famen Temple
Drive west to Famen Temple, founded in the third century to house a relic of the Buddha and one of the four most revered Buddhist monasteries in China. The octagonal pagoda and the monastery's courtyards set the scale of imperial devotion.

Afternoon — The Underground Palace
Descend into the underground palace, discovered in 1987 during repairs: a gilded hall holding a five-tiered jewelled pagoda and a nest of gold and silver caskets, the innermost of which contained the relic. The Tang treasure found here reset the study of Tang gold and silver work.

Evening — A Guoxue Tea Ceremony
Back in the city, take part in an intimate classical tea ceremony at a traditional academy: how the ritual of pouring tea was used to teach Confucian ideas of order and respect.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner included.

Morning — Qianling Mausoleum
Qianling Mausoleum is the joint tomb of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty and Empress Wu Zetian, the only woman ever to rule China in her own name. Built in the 7th century on Mount Liang, it is one of the few major Tang imperial tombs never looted, and its Sacred Way is lined with stone lions, winged horses, and statues of foreign envoys. Your guide will walk you along the approach, explaining Tang burial customs and the site's place in Chinese imperial history.

Afternoon — Yuanjia Village and Zhangjia Mount
Yuanjia Village in central Shaanxi is celebrated as a model of rural tourism, preserving Ming- and Qing-style lanes, craft workshops, and old teahouses. You can wander at your own pace, sampling local snacks and watching artisans at work. Nearby, Zhangjia Mount offers a refreshing natural escape with hiking trails, lush greenery, and sweeping views across the Loess Plateau, along with the chance to see a traditional cave dwelling. The afternoon is flexible and can be arranged around your interests.

Evening — Flexible Evening
The evening is yours to enjoy at your leisure, whether you relax at your hotel or explore the local area independently.

Morning — The Forest of Stone Steles
Visit the Forest of Stone Steles, where more than three thousand inscribed tablets span two thousand years of Chinese literature, religion and art — a library cut into rock.

Afternoon — The Giant Wild Goose Pagoda
Climb the seven-storey Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, built in 652 to hold the scriptures Xuanzang brought from India, for views across the city.

Evening — Farewell Dinner and Qinqiang Opera
A farewell banquet of Xi'an's finest cooking, then Qinqiang opera at Yisu She, the oldest opera house in the city, where the singing is loud enough to be heard over any orchestra.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner included.

Morning — Huajue Lane and the Great Mosque
Visit the Great Mosque on Huajue Lane, one of the largest and best preserved mosques in China. Founded in the Tang dynasty, it sets Arabic script and Chinese timber architecture side by side in the same courtyards, a record of more than a thousand years of Islamic life in Chang'an.

Afternoon — Shopping
Free time for last-minute shopping: cured beef, sweet fermented rice wine, date cake, hand-cut paper-cuts and calligraphy. Your guide can point you to shops the city itself buys from.

Evening — Departure
Your private transfer takes you to Xi'an Xianyang International Airport for your onward flight.

Meals
Breakfast included.