Xi’an With Kids: The Terracotta Army and the Bikes on the Wall

Xi’an was the capital of China when Rome was still a city state, and the two things to do with children here are two thousand years apart and a bike ride from each other.

The Terracotta Army first. A farmer digging a well in nineteen seventy four hit a clay head, and under the field was an army of eight thousand life size soldiers guarding an emperor’s tomb. Pit one is a hangar the size of a football field with ranks of them standing in the trenches where they were found. Every face is different. Kids stand at the rail and go quiet.

Go with a guide. The pits do not explain themselves and a good guide tells the story of the emperor, the mercury rivers in the tomb nobody has opened, and the kneeling archer with the paint still on. Two hours. Then the museum shop for a small soldier each.

The wall at sunset

The city wall is the best preserved in China, fourteen kilometers around the old city, wide enough on top for a road. Rent bikes at the South Gate in the late afternoon, tandems for the little ones, and ride the whole loop in ninety minutes with stops at the towers. The sun goes down over the roofs and the lanterns come on in the Muslim quarter below.

Then the Muslim quarter for dinner. A street of stalls, lamb skewers, the flatbread stuffed with meat called roujiamo, persimmon cakes, and the biang biang noodles that are as wide as a belt. Walk, point, eat.

Two nights. The high speed train from Beijing is four and a half hours and the kids will spend it watching the speed on the screen. Then on to Shanghai or Chengdu for the pandas.

Planning China with kids? Start with the full China family travel guide, or send me the ages and the dates and I will come back with what is really available.