Private Xi'an Tour: Terracotta Warriors, City Wall & Food
Eight thousand clay soldiers standing in three burial pits, exactly as they were buried 2,200 years ago.
A private guided tour of Xi'an's three major sites (the Terracotta Warriors Museum, the Ancient City Wall, and the Muslim Quarter) with your own English-speaking guide and driver, hotel pickup, all entrance fees, lunch and transport included. The tour runs six hours and covers the warriors' excavation site, a walk atop the 13.7-kilometer wall with panoramic city views, and a guided tasting of local street food including hand-pulled noodles and lamb skewers. Children from age one are welcome, and dietary requirements can be arranged at booking.
Step-by-step itinerary
- Terracotta Warriors Museum Entry included 4h
- South Gate Entry included 1h
Explore Terracotta Warriors and Xi'an highlights
- Meet guide at hotel
- Drive to Terracotta Warriors reproduction center
- Make small Terracotta Warriors replica
- Visit Terracotta Warriors Museum
- Drive back to Xi'an Muslim Quarter
- Enjoy local street food lunch
- Explore Xi'an Ancient City Wall
- Drive back to hotel
What’s included
- Terracotta Warriors Museum admission.
- Ancient City Wall admission.
- hotel pickup and drop-off.
- private air-conditioned vehicle and driver.
- English-speaking private guide.
- guided walking tour of the Muslim Quarter.
- street food tasting lunch with local snacks.
Times
- Every day 07:00 07:30 08:00 08:30 09:00 09:30 10:00
Information
Prices and times updated yesterday
Operated by Urban Passer
The experience
Your guide meets you at your hotel in the morning and drives you an hour to the Terracotta Warriors Museum. On the way, you stop at a reproduction center where a local master shows you how to hand-craft a small clay warrior replica using the same material as the originals: a chance to understand the technique before you see the real excavation. The museum itself holds over 8,000 life-sized clay soldiers and pottery horses arranged in three burial pits, buried with China's first emperor in the third century BC and undisturbed until 1974. Your guide shares details about the imperial burial practice and the discovery that made this site known as the eighth wonder of the world.
After the museum, you drive back to Xi'an and enter the Muslim Quarter on foot. Your guide leads you through the narrow streets to the stalls and restaurants locals eat at, not the ones in the tourist guidebooks. You taste hand-pulled noodles, lamb skewers, spinach noodles, pork burgers and sweet persimmon cakes: lunch is built around these snacks, and your guide knows which vendors have the best versions of each dish. The quarter itself is a living neighborhood, not a museum, and the food tour is how you move through it.
In the afternoon you walk atop the Ancient City Wall, one of China's largest surviving fortifications. The wall stretches 13.7 kilometers around the old city, stands 12 meters high, and is thick enough at the base that you can walk its full width. Every 120 meters, a rampart juts out with a sentry building where soldiers could defend the entire wall without exposing themselves. Your guide explains how this military engineering worked. From the top you see both the ancient city layout and the modern Xi'an spreading beyond it. The tour ends with a drive back to your hotel.
Is this one for you?Book this private tour if you want to move at your own pace without a group schedule: your guide adjusts the time spent at each site and can answer questions as they come up, which is what makes the difference between a rushed overview and actually understanding what you're standing in front of.
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Top questions
What languages is the tour guided in?
Live guide in English and Chinese.
Can children come?
Yes. Ticket types: Child (3 to 11 years); Infant (1 to 2 years): free.
What exactly are the Terracotta Warriors and why are they buried under Xi'an?
The Terracotta Warriors are life-sized clay soldiers and horses buried in three pits beneath Xi'an to guard China's first emperor in the afterlife. Over 8,000 of them were excavated starting in 1974 and now stand in the museum exactly as archaeologists found them arranged in formation.
Can I actually walk on top of the Ancient City Wall, or is it just a viewing platform?
You walk on top of the wall itself. The Xi'an Ancient City Wall is 13.7 kilometers long, 12 meters high, and wide enough to walk across: your guide points out the ramparts and sentry buildings spaced every 120 meters that were used to defend it.
What kind of food will I eat in the Muslim Quarter, and is it a sit-down meal or street food?
You taste street food and local snacks including hand-pulled noodles, lamb skewers, spinach noodles, pork burgers and sweet persimmon cakes. Your guide takes you to the stalls and restaurants where locals eat, and lunch is built around these dishes rather than a single sit-down restaurant.
How long is the drive from my hotel to the Terracotta Warriors Museum?
The drive is about one hour. You're picked up at your hotel in the morning, and on the way you stop at a reproduction center where you can try hand-crafting a small clay warrior before arriving at the museum.
Private Xi'an Tour: Terracotta Warriors, City Wall & Food
6h · EN +1 · at your hotel
from US$ 190 per person