3 Days Classic Xian Tour (Flight/Train Pickup)
Best Xian Highlights Plus Enjoyable Pace
Best Xian Highlights Plus Enjoyable Pace
How to visit Xian in an enjoyable pace?
This is the most classic Xian itinerary. With 3 days, you can enjoy all the best highlights of the ancient capital Xian at an enjoyable pace. You also have a flexible time for arrival and departure, wherever your flights or trains are connected with - Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, etc. If you arrive at Xian early, we can also arrange some activities for you to make the best of your time. The second day is a full day visit to the famous Terracotta Warriors, Ancient City Wall, Muslim Quarter (snack street & Great Mosque), Bell & Drum Tower Square. In the third, you have a half day for visiting the symbol of Xian - Big Wild Goose Pagoda, and having a quiet lesson of history and art in Xian Museum. The rest time is free for departure.
Day 1 Xian Arrival
Airport / railway station pick up
Welcome to Xian! Your tour guide will meet you at Xian Xianyang International Airport (or railway station), then escort you to your hotel in a private vehicle. The rest of today is on your own to explore this ancient capital of China.
How to get to Xi'an: Xian is only about 2~3 hours flying from majority of big cities in China, such as Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, etc. You can also get to Xian by high speed trains from Beijing (5.5hrs), Shanghai (6-7hrs), Guangzhou (8.5-9hrs), Hangzhou (6.5-7hrs), Pingyao (3hrs), Zhengzhou (2hrs), and so on.
Free time and nightlife idea: if you arrive at Xian in early and want to have some activities arranged for the rest time, please let us know in advance. You can also go to enjoy a wonderful Tang Palace Dance Show (usually from 8pm to 9pm) with a hearty dumpling dinner.
Night View of the Ancient Bell Tower around Muslim Quarter
Day 2 Terracotta Warriors Visit & Leisure City Tour (B, L)
Today's highlights: Terracotta Warriors and Horses, Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, Hanfu Experience, Grand Tang Dynasty Ever Bright City
After breakfast, drive about 40 km to discover one of the greatest man-made wonders in the world - the Terracotta Warriors and Horses, built by the first emperor of China Qin Shihuang to protect him in his afterlife. Over 8,000 life-size warriors, horses and chariots, buried in 3 pits for more than 2,000 years until uncovered by a local farmer in 1974, form an ancient military army with complete battle units of infantry, cavalry, etc. Standing in front of these figures, one can’t help being amazed not only by the ambition of Emperor Qin Shihuang but also by the fabulous artistic skills of ancient Chinese artisans. (Optional activity - before the Terracotta Warriors Museum visit, you will have a rare opportunity to make a miniature Terracotta Warrior on your own under the instruction of a local potter.)
After lunch, return to Xian to visit Da Cien Temple, a famous Buddhist sutra translation site during the Tang Dynasty. Giant Wild Goose Pagoda is the most famous building in the temple. The pagoda, rising to a height of 64.5 meters, was built by the famous Buddhist master Xuanzang to preserve classic scriptures he bought back from India during the early Tang Dynasty. Xuanzang was the prototype character for Tang Seng in the famous Chinese novel “Journey to the West”. (Note: It costs an extra 30 RMB if you want to climb up the Big Wild Goose Pagoda) After (or before) visiting the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, you will be provided an interesting experience of trying on the Hanfu which is the solemn costume of the emperors and their families, the ministers and the noble in the ancient dynasties of China. Seize this rare opportunity to take some photos to record this unique memory!
This evening you will be offered an interesting visit to Grand Tang Dynasty Ever Bright City which is a great place to walk, enjoy amazing nightscape and recall the prosperity and glory of the mighty Tang Dynasty most importantly. Seeing this area at night is totally different than during the day as the lighting is marvelous yet tastefully done.
Day 3 Xian Half Day Sightseeing & Departure (B, L)
Today's highlights: Ancient City Wall, Xian Museum
After breakfast, start today's tour with an educational visit to the Small Wild Goose Pagoda and Xian Museum to learn a lot about the history and culture about the ancient city of Xian. They are together located in a clean and beautiful park. The Small Wild Goose Pagoda is rather smaller and 55 years younger than its “sister” - the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda. Built during 707 to 709 AD, the pagoda is 43.4 meters tall with 13 tiers (originally 15 tiers), looking like a very tall rectangular pyramid. An interesting fact about the Small Wild Goose Pagoda is that the pagoda has survived nearly 70 earthquakes, and now still standing firm and sturdy. You can walk around to appreciate the beautiful design and take photos of the pagoda. Then you will go to visit Xian Museum which is only several minutes’ walking from the Small Wild Goose Pagoda. This museum has more than 130,000 pieces of jade relics, seals, paintings, porcelains, Buddhist statues, stone carvings and many other precious relics.
Later, go to spend a leisure time on the Ancient City Wall, the largest and best-preserved ancient city wall in China. Just like the merchants and envoys on the Silk Road thousands of years ago, you will enter the interior of the city walls through the Hanguang Gate. There you will visit a mini museum to see the real Tang Dynasty city wall ruins from over 1400 years ago, including gateways, cross-sections of the wall, and the remains of water channels. After the museum visit, get up to the city wall to enjoy a leisure stroll and pleasant panoramic views of modern Xian. Rent a bike (extra cost: 45RMB) to enjoy a relaxing cycling on the Wall is strongly recommended. The cycling routes and duration are flexible. Feel free to discuss with your tour guide. Leave the City Wall, then go to wander leisurely around the bustling and lively Muslim Quarter, a place where you can try different local snacks and explore Muslim culture.
The rest of the day is free for you until be escorted to catch the flight/train to leave Xian. Tour ends.
1. This price is for one person, based on a group of 2 adults sharing one standard double-bed room in a 4-star hotel and traveling with our private tour in low seasons. It will drop greatly if your group has 4 or more members.
2. This price is subject to change according to your traveling season, month and date. There may be huge price increasing during public Chinese holidays, school summer vacations, tourism peak seasons or some special dates. (China Public Holiday 2025 Schedule Released)
3. Other factors that may change the final tour price include group size, hotel class, tour activities, fluctuation of currency exchange rate, etc.
4. This price is based on exchange rate USD 1=RMB 7.00. The final price will be based on the exchange rate in effect at the time of agreement with our quotation.
5. This price is only valid to March 31, 2025.
6. This price is not the final price until the Confirmation Letter is sent.
7. The items included and excluded in this price are for reference only. The final services included, please refer to the confirmation letter sent to you by the travel consultant.
Hi Rita,
The best experience ever!!!! I fell in love.
I received your lovely card and cute gifts, thank you so much.
Done it! As always it’s my pleasure to hire your company services, see you in the next adventure.
Emmy
Hi Rita,
Please kindly see the feedback below.
We are a family of 7. This private tour package definitely met our expectations! Both tour guides (Chengdu- MAY & Chongqing-DAVID) provided us a very good service, both friendly and very flexible despite the change in our tour schedules. They were also very responsible and ensured our safety, meals and transports were well taken care of, especially since we have elderly and kids in our group. Both tour guides are very fluent in English too so it is very convenient for some of the non-chinese speakers in our group.
We will look for the same tour agent again in our next trip to China!
Best Regards,
Victoria
Hi Shirley,
Thanks for the tour, and the itinerary that you planned for us was very comprehensive and detailed. We enjoyed it very much. The tour guide was also very friendly and experienced. He followed your itinerary closely and brought us to all the sites and explained in detail. He also recommended and brought us to enjoy some of the local cuisines during lunch.
Overall, we are impressed by the excellent service, reliability and quality that yourself, the tour guide and the driver has provided us. We would like to visit China again and we will not hesitate to engage your services again. Thank you!
Regards
Chun How
Hi Shirley,
I'm writing to provide some feedback on our recent Xian and Beijing trip that you put together for us.
We travel a lot, in the past year to Japan, New Zealand, China, Turkey, Africa, China, and finally this Xian/Beijing trip. I bring this up to highlight that we deal with a lot of travel professionals. You are easily the best travel professional we have dealt with through all of those trips. My wife, who happens to be Chinese asked me to make sure to keep your contact information for future China trips, with the intention of replacing the China based agent her brother usually uses for our trips.
Please let your manager know that we would probably not have used your company if not for you. Bamboo Travel is new to us and in a foreign country, so we had doubts as to what to expect. Your service was excellent from start to finish which really gave us confidence in your company. We had a little bit of an unusual itinerary and some constraints related to our other China travel prior to this tour. You were able to work through all of our issues with fast responses to our questions.
You also went what I would say was above and beyond expectations. The final example of that is a friend in the US was shipping some things to our hotel in Beijing for me to bring home to her. I contacted you to confirm the hotel name before they shipped the items, expecting I would then have to figure out the shipping details. Your reply not only confirmed the hotel, but you provided the shipping info in both English and Chinese, which saved me the hassle of trying to figure which address to use. Not a huge thing, but it's those small things that add up to a big difference in customer experience.
Thanks again for everything!
Xian:
Our guide was Waldner and we liked him from the start. We were just coming off another tour with another company which had maybe the best tour leader we've ever had. Even though we were always comparing Waldner measured up well. He was great at explaining the history of places we visited as well as answering our cultural questions. The restaurants/food were very good. He and the driver also modified the itinerary somewhat to optimize the driving based on our arrival and departure times and locations. We liked the hotel in Xian. The car (van) was very comfortable. Waldner also helped arrange tickets for a night show for us.
Beijing:
Pickup was great; even though we got in late the guide that picked us up was there and actually met us at the track. Cindy was our guide and we really liked her also. She is very knowledgeable and willing to answer (a lot of) questions. This was my 3rd time in Beijing and it was amazing what a difference having a good guide made. Cindy and the driver also modified the itinerary to optimize the driving. She also helped us book tickets to two shows, one of which was not on your list of optional items (Lao She tea house). Cindy was concerned about us ordering a cab so she stayed at the show to make sure we got back to our hotel ok. The restaurants/food were very good. The hotel was good but not great; for example we had hot water issues every day, and when I went to pick up a package that was shipped to me they just left me to dig through a pretty large pile of packages all addressed in Chinese.
To wrap up, I would rate the overall experience of looking for a trip, picking a company, and traveling 9.5 out of 10. Shirley, your service was 10 out of 10.
See you next trip!
Terry
Dear Rita,
Feedback.
The trip organised by Rita Jiang to Beijing and Xian was very well planned and enjoyable, showing the best of Chinese history, culture, heritage, and enormous progress.Your 2 guides, Linda Chua and Beryl are very good. Linda went out of her way to take us to Peking Opera at night. The kids were tired, so we did not go to Summer palace and Heavenly temple, and did not go to Xian Pagoda. It was our choice, so its ok. (I have been to all)
The 2 bus drivers were excellent, very careful, disciplined and good temperament and helpful. I could not give a tip to Beryl at Xian station, as I had to rush into toilet inside, and did not know she could not enter the train Station.
The pace was good, but the last day of train from Xian, to hotel (plus late dinner scrabbling in Beijing), then early next morning to airport was too Hectic. However, it was because we had to return on 8.12.24. we wish we could stay longer in Xian, and elsewhere. We could probably have gone to Xian by train, then fly back to Beijing by plane, but one way tickets could cost much more.
Anyway, thank you very much for all your fine arrangements. We all enjoyed the short trip.
For the kids, the major highlights were the Great Wall, Terracotta warriors, Acrobatic show. They will treasure. I will plan more trips for them to China.
Best wishes and warm regards,
Richard
excellent assistance, helpfulness and courtesy. My contact 'was Shirley, prepared friendly and punctual. Highly recommended...
"Highest Standards of Quality and Honesty" is the core value of each specialized team at China Discovery.
Eveyone in our company is working hard for only one goal, which is to ensure the highest level of service, luxury, and attention to detail from the minute you begin planning your trip, to the day you return home.
Our travel consultants are professional, experienced and responsible, helping you from the very beginning to the end of your China trip!
After sending us an inquiry, one of our travel consultants will get back to you within 0.5~23.5 hrs. In the next few days, he/she will be working closely with you to formulate a customized tour plan, as well as providing professional suggestions based on your travel interests, time, and budget.
Beside, he/she will keep in contact with you during your entire tour in China, continually checking if everything is going well as planned.
We're working at Chengdu Bamboo International Tours, local based in Chengdu.
Our local guide in every destination is not only very friendly, enthusiastic but also very informative and knowledgeable.
Once you arrive in the destination, the patient and punctual guides will pick you up and take you to get under skin of the city at your own pace. By in-depth discovery and explanation, they’ll show you more about the history, culture, customs and authentic local life. Throughout the journey, they're not only expert guides who take care of all the details but also fellow travelers who are dedicated to help you explore in comfort and style.
Our guides are passionate about what they do, and it shows all the way!
Using our private transfer service makes you comfortable, relaxed and worry free all the way!
Our private service includes licensed drivers with many years’ driving experience and air-conditioned, non-smoking, clean and well-maintained cars/vans. Drivers are local, polite, friendly and helpful, taking you to your tourist sites, hotels, airport/train stations in safety. All kinds of vehicle are offered, and yours depends on the size of your group. Usually, we offer sedan cars, SUVs, business vans (MPV) and different types of buses, all with extra space for your luggage.
Our private transfer service guarantees you the highest comfort!
In each destination, you’ll enjoy a comfortable stay in a great location!
The hotels we choose are based on star rating, great locations, well-equipped facilities, cozy bed, high quality service and guests’ feedbacks. Choices are a lot ranging from luxury 5 star, comfortable 4 star to budget 3 star. You could decide where to stay to best suit for your budget and likes. Generally, the hotels have both Western and Chinese breakfast with a wide choices.
If you have already got an ideal hotel, please feel free to tell our travel consultants and they'll book the hotel for you.
Have good sleep in our well-selected hotels in all the destinations of China.
We can satisfy all the dietary requirements no matter you want Chinese local food, western food, vegetarian food or muslin food.
The restaurants we will take you for lunch or dinner are all designated tourist restaurants approved by local tourist administration bureau. They have very good sanitary conditions and the food is prepared fresh and clean.
There will be some meals excluded in your itinerary as you like, and your private guide will be delighted to give you some suggestions and take you to the local restaurants to taste like Beijing Roast Duck, Xian Dumpling Dinner, Sichuan Hotpot, etc., if you are interested in local food tasting.
All the dining options will satisfy your stomach!
Night View of the Ancient Bell Tower around Muslim Quarter
Terracotta Warriors in Xian - Our Customers
Visit beautiful Muslim Quarter
Dazzling Grand Tang Dynasty Ever Bright City lovely night views
Big Wild Goose Pagoda-Wilfred from Nederlandse-2018-CD-Tx-57837
Riding on Ancient City Wall - Our Guests from USA
Xian Museum and Small Wild Goose Pagoda
Our private Xian tour packages let you decide where to go, when to go, where to stay and touring paces on your own. The itinerary, hotels, food, cultural programs are customized to match your requirements. Before the tour, our knowledgeable Xian experts will give reliable suggestions and propose ideal tour package for you. During the tour, our private tour guide will help you learn deep about the history and culture of Xian, and make sure everything work well throughout the tour at the same time.
Xian applies to the 144-Hour Transit Visa Exemption. Visitor from 53 foreign countries who hold valid travel document & connecting flights to a third country/region can enter Xian from Xian Xianyang Airport, and stay in Xian up to 144 hours without a Chinese Visa. But since Xi’an has not many international flights, and the city is usually a middle stop of a China tour, we advise you to apply for a China Tourist Visa (L Visa) before coming to China so that you can travel in a more secure and flexible way. China Discovery can provide you the invitation letter so that you can obtain the visa with bigger chance while least time.
Xi'an has a warm temperate semi-humid continental monsoon climate with distinct four seasons – warm spring, hot and rainy summer, cool and comfortable autumn, cold and dry winter. The average annual temperature of Xi'an is around 13°C / 55°F. Generally speaking, you can visit Xian all year around, as most of the attractions are located in and near city area. But the best two periods of time to visit is March to June and mid-September to early November. During this period, the weather there is neither too hot nor too cold, and the number of tourists is relatively smaller than the summer time’s.
What to wear in summer? - light, quick-dry and easy to wear clothes, hat, sunscreen, rain jacket and comfortable shoes. What to wear in winter? - double layer jacket, long underwear pants and tops, sweaters, long sleeve shirts, wool blend socks, boots, winter jacket, winter hat, winter gloves, winter scarf. What to wear in spring? - long underwear, fleece outer layer, face mask, light hat, scarf, and gloves. What to wear in autumn? - thermal warmer jacket, light hat, gloves, scarf, wool socks, fleece pants.
Xian is only about 2~3 hours flying from majority of big cities in China, such as Beijing, Xian, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, etc. You can also take international flights to Xian from more than 50 countries and regions, such as Hong Kong, Macau, Taipei, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Sydney, Kuala, Bangkok, etc. Xian is connected by high-speed rails widely. You can get from Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Luoyang, Zhengzhou, Pingyao, etc. to Xian by bullet trains within 6 hours. Recommended gateways to Xian include: Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Hong Kong.
Bell & Drum Towers Area - strongly recommended for first-timers, easy access to Ancient City Wall, Muslim Quarter, Bell Tower, Drum Tower and popular restaurants. Hotel rates are higher than other areas, but you have a lot of choices of different standards. Xincheng District - not very far from the city center as well as Xian’s main attractions, recommended for families as there are shopping center and parks to enjoy a stroll. Yanta Distict – Yanta District is on the south of the city center, also near main attractions, including Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, History Museum, etc. It has many hotels of budget class.
China Discovery only uses those hotels with convenient amenities, fine services and great reputations. Most of them are 5-star and 4-star hotels located near the Muslim Quarter (food street), Bell Tower, Ancient City Wall, where you can also get easy accesses to subway, shopping malls, banks, etc.
The city area of Xian can be explored in brief two days, while the surrounding regions also have a lot of places to explore, such as Mount Hua, Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Shaolin Temple in Dengfeng. If time allows, you can extend your trip from Xian to above places. Each place only needs about 1 day to visit.
Xian / Mount Huashan
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