Three days, and the order matters more than the list. Lintong — the warriors, the burial mound, Huaqing Palace — is the only leg that leaves the city, so it gets a day to itself instead of being squeezed into a morning. The other two days sit on metro lines 2, 3, 4 and 8, one heavy on walking and one built around the museum. In summer the split is also about heat: walls and pits before nine or after five, indoors at noon. Two bookings open days before you arrive and both are real-name, so make them before you fly, not after you land.
At a glance
- Day 1Yongningmen (South Gate) → city wall by bike → Shuyuanmen → Bell and Drum Towers → Sajinqiao
- Day 2Metro 1 → 9 to Huaqing Pool → Terracotta Army → Lishan Garden → Huaqing Palace → Chang Hen Ge show
- Day 3Shaanxi History Museum → Giant Wild Goose Pagoda → fountain show → Tang Everbright City
Day 1
The wall by bike, and the quarter where the locals eat
Yongningmen (South Gate) → city wall by bike → Shuyuanmen → Bell and Drum Towers → Sajinqiao
Metro line 2 to Yongningmen puts you at the South Gate, the best place to go up: ¥54 to climb the wall, about ¥45 for a bike, and the full circuit is 13.7 km of unshaded Ming brick — most people ride the 1.5–3 km to Hanguangmen or Andingmen in under an hour and call it enough. Walk the Shuyuanmen market street on the way down (the Forest of Steles is ¥85 and skippable if calligraphy is not your thing), then the Bell and Drum Towers, about ¥50 for the pair. The mistake every guide makes is dinner: Beiyuanmen, the lantern street through the Drum Tower's arch, is for walking and photographs; the same bowl of paomo there costs a third to a half more than in Dapiyuan, Xiyangshi or Sajinqiao, two streets further in. Eat there — roujiamo, liangpi, paomo you tear yourself, an Ice Peak soda — and come back to the towers after 19:00, when they light up.
Day 2
Lintong, all of it — the warriors are only half the ticket
Metro 1 → 9 to Huaqing Pool → Terracotta Army → Lishan Garden → Huaqing Palace → Chang Hen Ge show
Leave by eight. The touts at the train station offering the '306' or 'You-5' bus are a known trap that ends at a fake attraction; the reliable route is metro line 1 to Fangzhicheng, line 9 to Huaqing Pool, then Lintong bus 602 for about ¥2 — ninety minutes in all, immune to traffic. The ¥120 ticket (book seven days ahead, passport accepted online, no on-site sales) covers both the three pits and Lishan Garden two kilometres away, and the bronze chariots — the finest objects in the whole complex — are on the Lishan side, a free shuttle away. Walk the pits, take the shuttle, give the chariot hall its hour. Huaqing Palace (¥120, optional) is a stop back down the road, and the 70-minute Chang Hen Ge show is staged against the mountain there at 19:40, 21:05 and 22:30. If you stay for it, pre-book a car or sleep in Lintong — a thousand people leave at once and taxis vanish.
Day 3
The museum morning, and a Tang-dynasty night
Shaanxi History Museum → Giant Wild Goose Pagoda → fountain show → Tang Everbright City
The museum is free but reservation-only, and the booking is the whole difficulty: slots open five days ahead at 17:00 Beijing time on the museum's WeChat channel and can sell out in a minute. Book with your passport number, then swap it for a paper ticket at the ticket centre by the entrance — foreign visitors cannot scan straight in. Two to three hours covers the Zhou-to-Tang galleries; the Hejiacun gold and silver is the room to linger in. From there it is one metro stop to the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda — about ¥40 for the Da Ci'en temple grounds, ¥25 more to climb — and the north square fountain runs free at 12:00, 16:00, 19:00 and 21:00. Finish in Tang Everbright City, the Tang-styled pedestrian street running south from the pagoda: free, open around the clock, and only itself after dark, when the street performances start and the lights come on.
Eat like you mean it
- RoujiamoBraised meat chopped fine and packed into a griddled flatbread — ¥10–15, eaten standing up.
- Yangrou paomoTear the bread yourself into soybean-sized pieces before the kitchen will take it. ¥30–50; the smaller you tear, the better it eats.
- Biangbiang noodlesOne belt-wide noodle under chilli oil and garlic, ¥18–28.
- LiangpiCold wheat-starch noodles with vinegar and chilli — ¥8–15, the thing to eat between two hot meals.
- HulatangPeppery meatball soup, breakfast only — gone by 10:00, so don't plan it for lunch.
- Ice Peak (Bingfeng)The local orange soda, ¥5, and the correct answer to a plate of chilli oil.
Where to stay
- Bell Tower & Drum TowerFirst trip: both towers, the Muslim Quarter and metro lines 1 and 2 under you.
- South Gate (Yongningmen)Quieter, and you walk up onto the wall from the door.
- XiaozhaiThe best value beds, and the Shaanxi History Museum is one stop away.
- Big Wild Goose PagodaNewer hotels in the Tang district — trade the centre for the night shows.
Before you go
- Book the warriors seven days ahead on bmy.com.cn or the official WeChat channel — passports accepted, no on-site sales, and free-admission visitors (under 16, over 65) still need a reservation.
- Shaanxi History Museum slots open five days ahead at 17:00 Beijing time and can sell out in a minute. Book with your passport number and swap it for a paper ticket at the entrance ticket centre — you cannot scan straight in.
- Ignore anyone at the train station offering the '306' or 'You-5' bus to the warriors. The safe route is metro 1 to Fangzhicheng, line 9 to Huaqing Pool, then bus 602 — about ninety minutes and ¥2.
- The ¥120 warriors ticket includes Lishan Garden across the road — the bronze chariots are there, a free shuttle runs every twenty minutes, and skipping it wastes half the ticket.
- Eat in Sajinqiao, Dapiyuan or Xiyangshi, not on the Beiyuanmen main street — the same paomo costs 30–50% more under the lanterns.
- In summer keep midday indoors: the wall and the pits have no shade and afternoons touch 38–40 °C. Wall at 8:00 or after 17:00, museum at noon.
- Staying for the Chang Hen Ge show? Pre-book a car or sleep in Lintong — a thousand people leave at once and there are no taxis.
One honest thing — Two bookings decide the trip before you fly: the warriors release tickets seven days ahead with no on-site sales, and the Shaanxi History Museum's free slots open five days ahead at 17:00 Beijing time and can go in a minute. Both scan the passport you booked with.
