9-Day Legacy of Fire: Xi'an & the Northern Deep 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: Visit the Yaozhou Kiln Museum

Start your day with a visit to the Yaozhou Kiln Museum, a fascinating cultural attraction that showcases the rich ceramic heritage of the region. The museum houses a wide range of artifacts and exhibits that highlight the history and techniques of Yaozhou Kiln, one of the most famous kilns in ancient China. You'll learn about the unique glazing and firing processes that produced the distinctive green-glazed ceramics. The museum also features interactive displays and workshops, allowing visitors to try their hand at traditional pottery-making techniques. This visit offers a deep dive into the artistic and cultural significance of Yaozhou Kiln ceramics.

Afternoon: Visit Chenlu Ancient Town

In the afternoon, head to Chenlu Ancient Town, a picturesque destination known for its traditional pottery-making and rich cultural history. This ancient town has been a center for ceramic production for over a thousand years, and its narrow alleys and traditional workshops offer a glimpse into the past. Stroll through the town to see local artisans at work, using traditional methods to create beautiful pottery. You can also visit the ancient kilns and learn about the history of ceramic production in the area. The town's charming atmosphere and rich cultural heritage make it a must-see for anyone interested in traditional Chinese crafts.

Morning — Hancheng Ancient City
Explore Hancheng Ancient City, beginning at the Confucian Temple, whose halls and steles record two thousand years of state orthodoxy in a provincial city that took it seriously.

Afternoon — Dangjia Village
Journey to Dangjia Village, the most completely preserved Ming-Qing folk village in China. There are 123 courtyard homes linked by narrow alleys, eleven ancestral halls where clan elders once met, and watchtowers still standing — not a reconstruction, but a place that was never abandoned.

Evening — Night in the Old City
Take a night walk through the ancient city when the crowds have gone and the lantern light falls on blue-grey tiles.

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 Long Road North
Board the coach for Yulin, roughly six hours through increasingly arid country as you approach the old frontier. Farmland gives way to rolling hills and then to sand.

Afternoon — Yulin Ancient City and Zhenbeitai
Explore Yulin Ancient City, once Yansui Town, one of the nine vital garrisons of the Ming Great Wall. Then journey out to Zhenbeitai, the largest surviving Ming watchtower on the entire wall system: a four-storey mass with ten-metre-thick walls, standing where the Mu Us desert meets green oasis.

Evening — A Second Night in Yulin
Return to Yulin for a second night. Share a meal and talk over the frontier.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner included.

Morning — Tongwancheng
Journey to Tongwancheng, the only surviving capital of the Xiongnu, the horse people whose migrations pressed on both Han China and Rome. The white mud walls still stand, extraordinarily hard, in the sand.

Afternoon — South Again
Begin the journey south toward the Suide and Yan'an area, moving from desert frontier back into the heartland.

Evening — Rest
Rest and prepare for tomorrow's pilgrimage to the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum.

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.