Xi'an brings together a city wall dating back more than 600 years with museums, temples and historic palace complexes. The topics span military defense and the Zhou, Han and Tang dynasties, as well as Buddhist scriptures and archaeological finds. If you want to choose the cultural focus of your trip, you can explore the city through these different stories.
City Walls and Historic Buildings
The Xi'an City Wall was built as a military defense system on the foundations of a structure from the Sui and Tang dynasties (581–907). The complex stretches for 13.74 kilometers. Visitors can walk along the wall or in the surrounding scenic area. A tour app described in March 2024 provides information about the wall's history and other attractions, and highlights popular photo spots; the offering may change.
The towers also tell of the practical functions that shaped the city's history. The Bell Tower was built in 1384 and served as an emergency alarm and a way to tell the time. The Drum Tower was built four years earlier and rebuilt twice during the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Together, these two nearby landmarks represent different functions and building histories. The Daming Palace, meanwhile, was the Tang dynasty palace complex where 17 of the 21 Tang emperors conducted political affairs.
Museums Spanning Different Periods
The Shaanxi History Museum houses 370,000 exhibits illustrating a period of more than one million years, up to around 1840. Three permanent exhibition halls organize the history: one on prehistory, one on the periods from the Zhou through the Tang dynasties, and one on later history up to 1911. Another collection focuses on a narrower period: the Tang Murals Gallery displays 600 murals from more than 20 aristocratic tombs of the dynasty.
Xi'an Museum is located in the southern part of the city, below the Small Wild Goose Pagoda. Its offerings combine exhibitions with interactive activities, craft workshops, night tours and educational programs. These program details come from a description dated April 2024; individual offerings may change. Exhibition formats also described in 2024 include virtual flipbooks, digital hologram presentations and interactive displays.
The Shaanxi Archaeology Museum in Xi'an offers another perspective: it displays more than 5,200 cultural artifacts recovered during archaeological excavations in Shaanxi Province. The Xi'an Guanzhong Folk Art Museum preserves and studies more than 40,000 folk artifacts dating from the Western Zhou dynasty, roughly from the 11th century to 771 BC. The collections therefore differ both in subject matter and in the periods they cover.
Religious and Imperial History
The Giant Wild Goose Pagoda is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor. The Buddhist monk Xuanzang is believed to have translated the Sanskrit scriptures he brought from India there. Xingjiao Temple houses more than 10,000 volumes of Buddhist scriptures; stone tablets bear the complete text of the Diamond Sutra.
Xi'an's Great Mosque also brings together religious and architectural history. Most of its surviving buildings date from the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). It is described as the only mosque in the world designed in the form of a traditional Chinese garden. At Weiyang Palace, the focus is on the Western Han dynasty (206 BC–24 AD): experts consider it to have been the dynasty's political center and national symbol.
Nearby Sites
The Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang lies 35 kilometers northeast of Xi'an. The complex includes almost 200 subsidiary structures with life-size terracotta soldiers and horses, as well as bronze chariots and weapons. At the nearby Museum of the Mausoleum Site of Emperor Qin Shihuang, the Museum of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses is divided into Pits 1, 2 and 3. It displays more than 7,000 clay figures of soldiers and horses, along with chariots and weapons.
Nearby Huaqing Palace is known for its hot spring and includes the Museum of the Imperial Tang Hot Spring Relics. This means that the area around Xi'an offers both the archaeological remains of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang and a site associated with Tang hot springs. For a cultural stay, these make a different thematic complement to Xi'an's city walls, museums and religious buildings.
Other Facets of the City
Tang Paradise is a large cultural theme park modeled on an imperial garden and built on the site of a former imperial garden. Its 14 cultural themed areas offer a different focus from the historical collections. In the Muslim Quarter, several food streets—with their Muslim-influenced cultural atmosphere, restaurants and food stalls—shape the area's character. Xi'an's offerings therefore range from architectural and religious history to museums, garden culture and food streets; the right focus depends on which of these themes you want to define your stay.
Discover more destinations: Weinan, Linfen, Yuncheng, Yangquan, Shangluo, Xinzhou, Shuozhou, Ankang.
Back to the main travel overview: Shaanxi.
