9-Day Grand Guanzhong Circuit: Xi'an, Mount Hua, Famen, Yan'an & Hancheng

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 — The Road to Mount Hua
Board the coach for the 120-kilometre drive east, watching the sacred mountain's granite silhouette rise out of the plain.

Afternoon — The West Peak
Ascend the West Peak by cable car — a twenty-minute ride through cloud and up vertical granite. From the summit at 2,086 metres, walk the ridge paths; the plank walks on the South Peak are a separate, more exposed choice and are not attempted in wet or icy conditions.

Evening — At the Foot of the Mountain
Descend by cable car and settle into your hotel at the foot of Mount Hua, ready to continue east in the morning.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner included.

Morning — Famen Temple
Coach west to Famen Temple, one of the oldest Buddhist temples in China, founded during the Eastern Han. Its central treasure is the underground chamber beneath the pagoda, sealed in the ninth century and rediscovered in 1987.

Afternoon — Qianling Mausoleum
Continue to Qianling, the joint tomb of Emperor Gaozong and Wu Zetian, the only woman ever to rule China as emperor in her own name. The spirit way is lined with stone officials, horses and the famous wordless stele she left for posterity to judge.

Evening — Return to Xi'an
Return to Xi'an for dinner.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner included.

Morning — North onto the Loess Plateau
An early breakfast, then the scenic drive north toward Yan'an — roughly 300 kilometres through the Weibei plateau. Watch the fertile Guanzhong plain give way to gullied yellow earth.

Afternoon — Zaoyuan
Arrive in Yan'an, the revolutionary base where the Communist Party spent thirteen defining years from 1935. Visit Zaoyuan, once the Central Committee's headquarters, where the leadership worked from caves and courtyards.

Evening — A Night in a Yaodong
Check into an authentic yaodong — a cave dwelling carved into the loess cliff that has sheltered families in northern Shaanxi for centuries. Sleep on the traditional kang bed, warm in winter and cool in summer.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner included.

Morning — Pagoda Hill
Begin at Pagoda Hill, the landmark of Yan'an, crowned by a Tang pagoda that has stood over the city for more than 1,300 years and became the symbol of the revolution.

Afternoon — Toward the Yellow River
Depart for Hukou Waterfall, roughly three hours through increasingly dramatic terrain as you approach the Yellow River. The road winds through gorges where the presence of the river becomes steadily louder.

Evening — Yichuan County
Arrive in Yichuan county for the night and rest up — tomorrow brings one of the most spectacular natural displays in China.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner included.

Morning — The Sima Qian Temple
Visit the temple of Sima Qian, the Han court historian who wrote the Records of the Grand Historian and established the model every Chinese history book followed for two millennia. He completed the work after being castrated for defending a defeated general — the shrine stands on a bluff above the river.

Afternoon — Continue the Journey
Board the coach for the next leg of the route.

Evening — Onward
Arrive at your next overnight stop and dine locally — Hancheng is known for its spicy lamb soup and its wheat noodles.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner included.

Morning — The Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum
Make the pilgrimage countless overseas Chinese have made for generations: the mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor at Huangling, the legendary burial place of Xuanyuan, the ancestor shared by the Chinese people. Ancient cypresses, stone altars and a hillside of memory.

Afternoon — Return to Xi'an
Return to Xi'an by coach and take a walk or a gentle bicycle ride on the ancient city wall — 12 metres high, 14 kilometres around, 98 watchtowers.

Evening — Farewell Dinner
A farewell dinner at a carefully chosen restaurant: stories of kilns, desert watchtowers and forgotten capitals, shared with your guide and your fellow travellers.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner included.

Morning — The Xi'an Museum
A last museum morning: the Xi'an Museum's galleries run from Zhou bronzes to Tang figurines around the courtyard of the Jianfu Temple and its Small Wild Goose Pagoda. It is the single best room in which to review everything the week has shown you.

Afternoon — Last Shopping
Time for cured beef, date cake, calligraphy paper and paper-cuts. Your guide knows which shops the city's own families buy from.

Evening — Departure
Your private vehicle takes you to Xi'an Xianyang International Airport for the flight home.

Meals
Breakfast included.