How to Plan a Xi’an Trip

Great family tour. Jenny got us through the crowds quickly and was very informative about the Teracota warriors. Take the wall bike ride as well.They took great care of us. English is not spoken as much in Xi’an as Beijing. It would have been a difficult trip without a good guide.

Great experience. The China Highlights team in XiAn was professional, kind and experienced. Would definitely recommend them!

I had a three day stop in Xi'an as part of my 16 day tour of China. The guide Ms Mervyn was extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic about history. We visited the Terracotta Warriors Army, the Tomb of Emperor Jingdi, the City Walls, the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, the Great Mosque, the Xi'an Museum, and the Guangren Temple. The City Walls are especially impressive after dark, when they are lit up and local people are gathering for the evening exercise/promenade. I learned a lot of facts about historical artifacts from Mervyn, especially in Xi'an museum and the two Emperor tombs, for example, how beauty standards were changing from dynasty to dynasty, what different vessels were used for, how foreign cultures influenced life in Xi'an, etc. Without such a professional guide it would have been very difficult to fully appreciate such an ancient and culturally rich place. Many thanks to Mervyn and China Highlights for the experience!

We had a wonderful and very special time in Xi‘an with our guide Susan.Susan has incredible knowledge about Xi‘an and the chinese dynasties. Furthermore her English was absolutely perfect.We were travelling with two little children and Susan was extremly flexible with our schedule.Susan made our time in Xi‘an unforgettable!!

Had a fabulous day with Jenny and our lovely driver. She was able to choose the best time to go as it was a public holiday and very crowded. We managed to avoid the crowds and had an excellent viewing of the three pits- complete with archaeologists at work. Her knowledge was very good and she was able to give many details that I had not read or heard before. The pace was perfect and we neither hurried or went slow. We topped the terracotta warriors off with a visit to a small artisan where you were able to try your hand at creating your own figurine. A great experience and not your usual trip to an overpriced tourist shop. Finally the Wild Goose Pagoda and again information that I had not been given on a previous visit. Lunch was a local dish of beef and noodles and bun. Tasty and very filling. Had been to Xi’an previously but found this trip, more informative, easy to navigate the crowds and certainly more enjoyable. Our driver was so patient and always on time and ready with water after walking around. I opted out of the wall visit as I decided to do that alone at night. Again jenny was very helpful with advice and directions.

Our stay in Xi'an was wonderful thanks to Jenny, our Guide. She showed and told us really interesting things and places. She helped us with some small things that we were looking for in the city. She helped a lot with our small kids. Definitely recommend.

Such a great time with our guide Ms. Melvin. Seeing the Terracotta Warriors in person was such a thrill after watching so many documentaries on the subject. Temples, palaces, wonderful restaurants. So impressed with our hotel accommodations esp. at Chengdu and Xian. It was an experience of a lifetime. Everyone was so kind and interested in us. An amazing time. Thank you so much, can't imagine how it could be better.

Our trip to Xian was a comfortable and pleasant one, thanks to Jenny, our tour guide from China Highlights. We visited the Terracotta Warriors Museum on Day 2 of our trip to Xian which was a comfortable ride from the city. Lucky us, the crowd was considerably small that day (even on a Saturday) and with Jenny's expert navigation we got through the entrance pretty quickly. We even managed to take our photos without the crowd photo bombing. We had a simple but delicious lunch at the museum compound after about 1.5hr of touring the museum sites. It was rainy for most parts of our trip but when we got to the Ancient City Wall after the Terracotta Museum, the rain stopped and we had a nice cooling tour of the wall. The Terracotta and Ancient City Wall trip that day did not feel rushed. With Jenny's vast knowledge and clear explanation, we learned a lot about the terracotta and the history of the city in general. The remaining of our trip we did our own free and easy tour and visited some of the major attractions in Xian such as the exploring the Muslim Quarters food street, Xian Museum (the Small Goose Pagoda is in the same area), watched the musical fountain near the Big Goose Pagoda.

This is the third time I've arranged a trip with China Highlights during my work year in China: it's always an excellent service. This trip from Xi'an to Hua Mountain was the same: Mervyn is a fun and knowledgeable guide, and Vivi who helped to organize it was efficient and helpful. Definitely check them out if you want to arrange a trip somewhere in China: they take all the stress out of it and let you focus on the amazing scenery!

We had a wonderful time on our day trip with Jenny. We started out by visiting the Terracotta Warriors. Although there were crowds of people, Jenny knew just where to take us for good vantage points and was quick to supply detailed information about the excavation site. We then had a delicious lunch of Xi'an noodles and were off to the city wall. On the wall we took a short bicycle ride and just enjoyed seeing the city from a different perspective. We ended the day by wandering through the Muslim Quarter and seeing the Bell and Drum Towers. It was an amazing time. We just wished we had more than one day to visit the city.

Mervyn was an awesome tour guide! Very well educated on the history of Xi’an and all the places we went with her. She brought us to local restaurants to enjoy the wonderful varieties of Chinese food of the region. She was sure we were all taken care of, and was kind and even made sure we got on our connecting plane flight out of town. mount, Hua was great and she helped us to go up to the highest peak on the north first by cable car and walk down and exit by the other Cablecar on the south end. She took Many pictures of our group, and she was a true professional, as well as a caring person!!

Booked a three day trip in Xi'an with China Highlights and met the the wonderful Jenny who is a local. On the first day we went to visit the Terracotta Warriors and she expertly helped to navigate me to the best spots to take photos all while explaining the fascinating history and story behind this 8th wonder of the world. Jenny is a wealth of knowledge and also has an ability to sort of 'bring history to life' with her innate ability to explain things in a very engaging way while intersplicing cultural tidbits throughout which helped me to really understand and appreciate several aspects of Chinese history, culture, and thought on a much deeper and more profound level. We also went to a local factory that actually makes many of the replica Terracotta Warriors where I was able to meet the owner, a very kind man. He showed me the facility and then we sat down and showed the molding process involved in creating these replica warrior pieces from clay and then proceeded to demonstrate in making one. Was then handed a piece of unformed clay and was somehow able to make a small one myself (with a little help from him at the end) and keep this as a souvenir. So cool :) The remaining two days were spent visiting the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, Shaanxi History Museum, the Hanyang Tomb, the Forest of Stele Museum, and the Muslim Quarter, all which were super interesting, especially the Shaanxi History Museum where Jenny explained the story and other fascinating facts behind many of the major artifacts/pieces/exhibits there. On the last day I asked if we could, instead of visiting a couple additional sites that were left remaining on the official itinerary, go to a good restaurant that served local/traditional Xi'an dishes that were popular with locals. We ended up going to a restaurant where we ate an absolutely delicious bowl Paomo (crumbled flatbread in mutton stew with lamb or beef) which turned out to be the most delicious meal of my entire trip there. What made it even more special was us sitting down together (Jenny, the driver, and me) and using our hands in the local traditional way to break apart the flatbread into small pieces before putting it into our respective soup bowls) before it was brought to the back to be cooked/seasoned in the meat stew/soup. It was the perfect ending to the three day tour :) Before departing, Jenny ended up recommending other places that I could check out on my own such as the Datang Everbright City at night (which turned out to be one of the most spectacular places I've ever visited in China, people so full of excitement and joy, very nice energy there). She is also quite 'dialed in' to the local culture, trends, and thoughts of the people in Xi'an and also China as a whole which made the entire trip very educational and illuminating.

In preparing a plan to visit China (from Beijing to Xi'an), Carol, my trip advisor, has been very helpful in designing a customized tour for me. The plan includes all the details of the locations and activities reflecting the preferences I specified. Best of all, the cost is very reasonable. I highly recommend to contact Carol to discuss your trip to China.

We booked a booked through China Highlights. Jacob was our guide. He gave us a good informative history overview, and answered our questions about other historical questions. We enjoyed seeing the terracotta warriors, despite lot of people, Jacob prepared us for the crowd and didn’t loose us. He was flexible with our family's needs and even recommended us where to go visit and eat the next day. Super helpful - wish he could have gone cycling with us on the ancient city wall.

Our guide in Xian was Jenny and she took care of us throughout the trip. We had to make some last minute adjustments to the itinerary as one of us wasn't feeling well and Jenny happily obliged and replanned on the go. Jenny brought us to all the key tourist attractions like the terracotta warriors and city wall, and provided a wealth of history and insight into them. We also had some cool experiences like making our own terracotta warriors in an old cave as well as making some puppets that were used for puppet shows in the time before TV and movies. Overall we had an awesome time in Xian and we were extremely happy to have Jenny as our guide. We would recommend her highly to anyone.

This review is for our tour booked through China Highlights. Our tour guide was a gentleman named Rocky (幸福一生). He took wonderful care of my family (two kids, aged 7 and 10). He was flexible with our family's needs and picked great spots to eat lunch. He had loads of information on the best routes and places to take photos or just relax. I would highly recommend him. We enjoyed seeing the terracotta warriors and learning about their history. Seeing the colors that used to be on them and the process the preservationists are using to repair the damage were especially interesting. Our family's favorite part of the visit was the trip to Huashan mountain. What a beautiful place! There are a lot of steps, so beware. Nevertheless, even I was able to climb part of the way with my leg still recovering from a bad injury. The City Wall and seeing the Bell Tower were nice, but wouldn't be on my must-do list, especially if you've already been to the Great Wall. It's still an interesting piece of history and Rocky went out of his way to make it fun for us. The alley market in the Muslim quarter was fun for souvenir shopping, delicious snacks, and learning about the role Xi'an played in the silk road. It was raining during our visit to the Great Mosque, but it is such a beautiful, peaceful place. I wish we had planned more days in Xi'an to learn more.

We spent the last three days in Xi’an and we had a wonderful time here. Susan, our guide, made a huge difference, as she was very knowledgeable about the history of the place, provided a lot of information and historical facts, nice stories and she made it very exciting. On top of the normal attractions (Terracotta Warriors, Big Wild Goose Pagoda, The Big Mosque and the Muslim Quarter) she also recommended a very nice show that we attended next to the Ancient Wall of Xi’an. I full recommend that show to all then people coming to Xi’an. I also fully recommend Susan as a guide, as she is very knowledgeable about everything related to Xi’an and to the Chinese history. Thank you Susan for providing us such a great experience! Adrian Iancu

Our recent trip to Xi'an with China Highlights and our amazing guide Susan was an excursion to remember. Susan is an incredible source of knowledge for the area and made every location come alive with her stories and information. Our trip to the Terracotta Warriors was a highlight of our time in the city but there was so much more to see and enjoy. So many great memories for our family in this dynamic city. Thank you Susan and China Highlights for another adventure in China.

Our trip to Xi'an was AMAZING. We moved to China in October of 2020 and this was the first trip we have taken outside of Beijing. Our guide, Mervyn, was incredibly knowledgeable and her English was excellent. She was so kind and thoughtful in every way- she had the foresight to adjust our tour events so we could take full advantage of all experiences- most notably moving our visit to the City Wall to our first day when we actually had no tours scheduled to take advantage of the sunny weather as it was forecasted to rain for the rest of our visit. We had an amazing time learning about the history of China and Xi'an in particular, as well as the facts regarding the specific sites we visited. Mervyn also guided us through our lunches to try the best typical food on offer and even went as far to allow us to contact her in the evenings for suggestions for food and locations for our dinners. She was so thoughtful and always checked in with us to make sure we were happy with everything.

My husband and I spent three full days in Xian. We are Aussies living in China for work, and this was our first holiday exploring China. The tour itinerary prepared by China highlights was excellent, and covered some great sites/activities including Shaanxi history museum, big wild goose pagoda, Muslim quarter, Terracotta warriors, the city wall, Forrest Stone tablets, shadow play at the Gao courtyard and Hanyang tomb . Our local guide Helen was extremely knowledgeable about Xian and all the sites we visited. There wasn’t a question she couldn’t answer. Helen went the extra mile to ensure that we had an unforgettable trip, including shuffling the itinerary to avoid the rain for our ride on the city wall, ordering excellent dishes at the local restaurants, and recommending other restaurants to try for dinner. We feel very lucky to have had such a wonderful and friendly guide to show us around Xian.