Xian in 3 days

Xi'an City Wall (西安城墙 — Chengqiang; the most complete and best-preserved ancient city wall in China; built 1370-1378 (8 years of construction, using 300,000 workers and soldiers) by the order of the Hongwu Emperor (Zhu Yuanzhang) of the Ming dynasty on the foundations of the Tang dynasty imperial city walls of Chang'an): the statistics (the Xi'an City Wall: total length 13.74 km (the rectangular wall perimeter: north wall 2.834 km, south wall 2.590 km, east wall 2.590 km, west wall 2.590 km, with 4 main gates (the North Gate, the South Gate, the East Gate, the West Gate) and 8 smaller subsidiary gates added in the 20th century); the wall dimensions (height 12 m; top width 12-14 m (wide enough for 4 horse-drawn carriages or 6 mounted soldiers to ride abreast along the top); base width 15-18 m; the wall is constructed of rammed earth (the core) faced with grey kiln-fired brick (the Tang dynasty-era brick recycled from the earlier wall is visible in the lower sections); the 98 protruding watchtowers (the "madian" — the platform towers projecting 12 m from the outer face every 120 m (the maximum effective crossbow range of the Tang-Song era) allowing defenders to fire along the wall face at attackers); the bicycle circuit (the top of the Xi'an City Wall is wide enough to be a road — the rental bicycle (tandem bicycles and single bicycles: ¥45-60 (€5.90-7.90) for the 1.5-2 hour circuit of the full 13.74 km: the most popular tourist activity in Xi'an for the combination of physical engagement, historical significance and panoramic view of the city and the surrounding Shaanxi plateau).

Bell Tower (钟楼 — Zhonglou) and Drum Tower (鼓楼 — Gulou) of Xi'an (the two Ming dynasty landmark towers at the centre of the Xi'an historic city, 300 m apart): the Bell Tower (built 1384, relocated to its current central position in 1582; the 36-metre wooden structure on a 8.6-metre square brick platform; the original 1380 bell (the "Jingzhen Zhong" — the iron bell weighing 5,000 kg (5 tonnes): the bell was rung every morning at dawn to signal the opening of the city gates (the Tang dynasty "morning bell" ritual that gave the bell tower its name and function)); the Drum Tower (built 1380; the 34-metre wooden structure on a 7-metre brick platform; 300 m west of the Bell Tower: the original drum (a painted drum 1.8 m in diameter) was beaten every evening at dusk to signal the closing of the city gates (the Tang dynasty "evening drum" paired with the "morning bell" — the two towers together regulated the daily rhythm of the imperial capital); the Tang Chang'an sound system (the Bell Tower and Drum Tower of Xi'an together represent the Tang dynasty urban sound signalling system: the 108 bell strokes at dawn (the 108 representing the 108 afflictions of Buddhist cosmology — the number 108 having ritual significance in both Buddhist and Taoist Chinese traditions: the 108 strokes precisely timed to end at the moment the first light of the morning reached the Bell Tower shadow) and the 18 drum beats at dusk (marking the closing of the city and the beginning of the nighttime curfew)); the view (the view from the Bell Tower top gallery: the four directional avenues of the Xi'an historic centre (the North, South, East and West Streets of the Tang dynasty grid plan), the City Wall circuit visible to all four horizons.

Shaanxi History Museum (陕西历史博物馆 — the national museum of Shaanxi Province; the most important provincial history museum in China; opened 1991; free admission; 370,000 objects in the permanent collection): the collection highlights (the Shaanxi History Museum holds the finest collection of Tang dynasty artefacts in the world — the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE) period when Chang'an (Xi'an) was the largest city in the world and the eastern terminus of the Silk Road): the Tang dynasty gold and silver (the gold and silver objects from the Tang dynasty hoard (the "He Family Hoard" discovered in 1970 in a Tang dynasty cellar in Xi'an): the most technically accomplished gold and silver work of the Tang period (the parcel-gilt silver bowls with the dancing girls and hunting scenes (the iconography influenced by Sasanian Persian silver ware — the Persian artistic tradition of the Sasanian Empire (224-651 CE) being the primary non-Chinese artistic influence on Tang culture)), the Tang Sancai horses and camels (the three-colour (sancai — the lead-glazed Tang stoneware using the three colours: amber/brown (the iron oxide glaze), green (the copper oxide glaze) and cream/white (the clear glaze)) horse and Bactrian camel figures placed in Tang dynasty aristocratic tombs as "spirit goods" (mingqi); the Silk Road artefacts (the diplomatic gifts, the luxury goods (the Roman glass, the Persian silver, the Central Asian textiles) that arrived along the Silk Road at the Tang court: the Silk Road was the most important global trade route of the pre-modern world, operating for approximately 1,500 years (from the Han dynasty (130 BCE under Emperor Wu) to the Ming dynasty (1450 CE) when Portuguese sea routes replaced the overland Silk Road).

Big Wild Goose Pagoda (大雁塔 — Dayan Ta; the Tang dynasty Buddhist pagoda on the southern axis of Chang'an; built 652 CE by the Tang Emperor Gaozong for the monk Xuanzang (玄奘, 602-664 CE) to house the Buddhist sutras and relics he brought back from his 17-year pilgrimage to India (629-645 CE)): the history (Xuanzang's pilgrimage to India (629-645 CE) is the most famous journey in Chinese history (the inspiration for the 16th-century novel "Journey to the West" (西遊記 / Xiyouji) — the classic Chinese novel following the monk Tang Sanzang (Xuanzang) and his supernatural companions (the monkey Sun Wukong, the pig Zhu Bajie and the water demon Sha Wujing) on the journey to India to retrieve the Buddhist sutras): the pilgrimage was undertaken without imperial permission (the Tang Emperor had closed the borders); Xuanzang returned 17 years later with 657 Buddhist texts and spent the remaining 19 years of his life (645-664 CE) translating 74 of the 657 texts from Sanskrit to Chinese at the Ci'en Temple adjacent to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda); the tower (the current 7-storey 64.5 m tower (the original Tang tower was 5 storeys (54 m); rebuilt 701-704 CE to 7 storeys; the exterior brickwork is the Tang original); the Tang Paradise (大唐芙蓉园 — Datang Furong Yuan): the large-scale Tang dynasty themed park adjacent to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, featuring the largest musical fountain in Asia (the nightly fountain show: 20 minutes of synchronized music, light and water jets (the maximum height: 88 m); the most popular evening activity in Xi'an.

Hua Qing Palace (华清宫 — Huaqing Gong; also Huaqing Pool (华清池 — Huaqing Chi); 30 km east of Xi'an at the foot of Li Mountain (Li Shan); the royal hot spring resort of the Tang dynasty Emperor Xuanzong (Emperor Minghuang) and the consort Yang Guifei (Yang Yuhuan)): the history (the hot springs at the foot of Li Mountain have been used as an imperial bathing resort since the Zhou dynasty (1046-771 BCE): the current architecture is Tang dynasty (built 714 CE by Emperor Xuanzong) and Qing dynasty (18th century restoration)); the Yang Guifei story (the most celebrated love story in Chinese history: Emperor Xuanzong (唐玄宗, 685-762 CE) fell in love with Yang Guifei (楊貴妃 — the "Precious Consort Yang", 719-756 CE) who became his favourite consort from 740 CE onward; the Hua Qing Palace hot spring pool (the "Lotus Pool" — Furong Tang: the private bathing pool of Yang Guifei in the Hua Qing Palace) where Yang Guifei bathed daily is the most celebrated single architectural element of the palace; the An Lushan Rebellion (755-763 CE) ended the golden age of the Tang dynasty: the rebel general An Lushan forced the Emperor to flee Chang'an with Yang Guifei; the Imperial Guard at Mawei mutinied (they blamed Yang Guifei's cousin Yang Guozhong for the rebellion) and demanded Yang Guifei's death; the Emperor reluctantly ordered her strangled; the "Song of Everlasting Regret" (长恨歌 — Changhen Ge) by the Tang poet Bai Juyi (白居易, 772-846 CE) is the most celebrated Chinese poem about a historical event); the 1936 Xi'an Incident (the Hua Qing Palace bathhouse complex was used as the personal residence of Chiang Kai-shek when he was kidnapped by his own generals (Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng) on December 12, 1936 — the Xi'an Incident that forced Chiang to cooperate with the Chinese Communists against Japan.

Great Mosque of Xi'an (西安清真大寺 — Xi'an Qingzhen Dasi; on Huajue Lane in the Muslim Quarter, 500 m west of the Drum Tower; the largest and most historically significant mosque in China constructed entirely in the Chinese architectural tradition): the history (the mosque was first built in 742 CE (during the reign of the Tang Emperor Xuanzong — the same emperor of the Yang Guifei story — in the 2nd year of the Tianbao reign period): the founding corresponds to the period when the Arab (Abbasid Caliphate) commercial community was most actively settled in Chang'an along the Silk Road; the current buildings are primarily Ming (15th-17th century) and Qing (18th century) dynasty construction; the mosque's area: 12,000 m²); the architecture (the most architecturally significant mosque in China: the buildings follow the traditional Chinese Buddhist temple and palace architecture forms (tiled grey roofs, red-painted wooden columns, stone-paved courtyards, moon gates) with only the orientation (all buildings face west toward Mecca — the qibla direction) and the calligraphic inscriptions (the Arabic and Persian calligraphy on the interior wall panels alongside Chinese calligraphy) distinguishing the mosque from a Chinese Buddhist or Confucian complex; the main prayer hall (the wooden prayer hall with the 350 m² interior floored with carpet; capacity 1,000 worshippers; the arched mihrab (the niche in the western wall indicating the qibla direction toward Mecca) is the only visually "Islamic" element in the otherwise Chinese interior): the minaret (the "Shengxin Tower" — the minaret of the Great Mosque of Xi'an is a Chinese-style hexagonal wooden tower rather than the circular tapering minaret of the Arabic tradition).

Tang West Market (大唐西市 — Datang Xishi; the archaeological site and museum on the location of the original Tang dynasty West Market of Chang'an (唐长安城西市), 3 km west of the Bell Tower): the history (the Tang dynasty capital Chang'an had two great markets: the East Market (东市) and the West Market (西市) — the West Market was the more important for international trade: the meeting point of the Silk Road where the merchants from Central Asia, Persia, Arabia, India and the Byzantine Empire traded their goods (the silk (the primary Chinese export), the tea, the porcelain, the spices, the glass, the horses (the Tang dynasty was obsessed with the "blood-sweating horses" of Ferghana (Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan) — the Akhal-Teke breed that Xuanzong maintained 40,000 of at the imperial stables), the Buddhist relics, the exotic animals (the cheetahs, the ostriches, the lions and the elephant that were diplomatic gifts from the Abbasid Caliphate to the Tang court)); the Sogdians (the most important foreign merchant community of Tang Chang'an: the Sogdians — the Iranian-speaking merchants of the Samarkand and Bukhara oasis cities of Central Asia — who dominated the Silk Road trade for 400 years (4th-8th centuries CE); the Sogdian merchant community in Chang'an had its own residential quarter, its own Zoroastrian fire temples and its own legal system; the Sogdian silk merchant "An Jia" whose funerary stone couch (5th-6th century CE) is in the Shaanxi History Museum is the most detailed depiction of Silk Road merchant life in any archaeological artefact).

Xi'an evening food culture (the most dramatic atmospheric change in any Chinese city — the Muslim Quarter and the Bell Tower area transform after dark): the biangbiang mian (biang biang noodles (biáng biáng miàn — the "biang" character is the most complex Chinese character in regular use (approximately 57 strokes): no standard Unicode encoding exists for the character; the word "biang" is onomatopoeic of the slapping sound the noodle makes against the board during preparation): the noodle (the wide, thick, hand-pulled belt-shaped wheat noodle of Xi'an: the noodle width is 3-4 cm (the "belt noodle" — as wide as a leather belt), the length is typically the full arm span of the noodle maker (60-90 cm per noodle strand); the preparation (the noodle dough is rested, stretched, then slapped against the board repeatedly to develop the gluten structure before being thinly pulled and torn to the correct width: the slapping technique (the "pa" — the flat slap against the hard board surface) creates the distinctive sound and the distinctive gluten structure (stretchy, chewy, resistant); the sauce (the Xi'an biangbiang noodle sauce: the hot chilli oil (the Shaanxi chilli (the "qinshui" or "chaotian" chilli, grown on the Qinling Mountain slopes) poured boiling hot over the raw minced garlic and scallion, creating the sizzling "ci la" sound that adds the additional flavour dimension of charred allium to the chilli heat), the black vinegar, the soy sauce, the minced garlic, the tomato-egg stir-fry (the traditional Xi'an noodle topping); the roujiamo (肉夹馍 — the "meat sandwiching the bread" — the Xi'an pork sandwich: the slow-braised pork belly (cooked 8-12 hours in the master stock of soy, dark soy, Shaoxing wine, star anise, cassia bark, cloves and rock sugar) chopped and stuffed into the baked flatbread (the "bai ji mo"): ¥10-15 (€1.30-2).