Tips on Surviving Xi’an During a Chinese Holiday

China has a huge population, and when everyone gets a holiday off, they all love to travel and see family. Problem is, that’s one of the few times that I would get off of work as well. I was advised by multiple people to travel outside of China during the National Days holiday break, but after looking at plane prices and also deciding that I want to travel by plane as little as possible, I took off to Xi’an, China with two friends. If you also need to travel during a Chinese holiday and want to go to Xi'an, here are my tips for surviving Xi'an during a Chinese holiday!

Traveling to Xi'an During a Chinese Holiday

How bad could it be? At the time I was living in Chongqing, a megacity, so I’m used to a lot of people, I suppose.  

Boy, was I in for a treat. I don’t regret the trip, and thankfully I was able to go back to Xi'an for a second time not during a holiday, but I did leave slightly annoyed by other tourists and definitely exhausted. 

So if you can go to Xi’an during off-peak season, I’d highly recommend going at a different time. However, if this is your only opportunity or you're a stubborn fool like me, go and have fun! But here’s what you can expect in Xi’an during a holiday:

Frustrations of Traveling

I enjoyed Xi'an, but there were a lot of frustrating moments. In particular, the morning we were going to see the Terracotta Warriors, it was 6:30 a.m., I had had no caffeine, and a grown man specifically video called someone to point out that he was next to foreigners. He made it incredibly obvious by pointing and so on that he was talking about us. Sigh. Oh well- it's things like that that you just need to shrug off.

Due to the crowds, there were some main attractions that we chose not to go to. For example, we didn’t go inside the Bell Tower or the Drum Tower because the lines were too long and we didn’t want to deal with it. We tried to get to the Muslim Quarter, but we were packed in like sardines and were so hangry after a lovely bike ride (depends on who you ask, but I personally loved the bike ride) that we fled to a noodle shop down a quiet side street. 

And when we got to Huashan Mountain and tried to take the cable car to the North Peak, we saw how ridiculous the line was, turned right around and took the shuttle bus to just start hiking up it. Although I still thoroughly enjoyed Huashan (it was probably my favorite day), we didn’t get to make it up to the peak because we had to descend to get the bus back to Xi’an, which is about 2 hours away. 

However, even though Xi'an was rammed I still had a good time overall. The warriors were fascinating (albeit hard to see) and both Huaqing Palace and Huashan were so visibly stunning I just stood there smiling up at the mountains for quite awhile.

So if this is the only time you can go, or you’re convinced that I’m exaggerating, well, at least you can learn from what we did well and what we messed up. So here are some of my tips on traveling to Xi’an during a holiday and still coming back in one piece!

1. Buy your train tickets to Xi’an at least a month in advance

If you're traveling by train to Xi'an, train tickets get bought up real fast, so if you want to not spend an arm and a leg and get a seat rather than a standing ticket, buy early. In China, train tickets are usually only released two months before the date you’re looking to buy for, so you can’t buy too early, but make sure you look and buy at least a month before the day you’re planning to go. 

Hostels were easier to find, but you’ll still want to get one of those as quickly as possible as well, and make sure that they accept foreigners and not just Chinese Nationals. 

Get an early morning train ride to Xi'an

Unless you’re taking a sleeper car, it’s best to get an early morning train (such as 7:00 a.m.), as the traffic to the train station and the amount of people there will be much lower than an afternoon or night train.

2. Get to the Terracota Soldiers as early as possible

Are you starting to see a trend here? The earlier, the better. There’s a public bus, the 306, that leaves from the Xi’an train station and starts running at 7:00 a.m. The ticket’s 7 kuai and drops you off right on the road to get to the Terracotta Warriors (you’re going to bingmayong). 

The Terracotta Warriors opens up at 8:00 a.m., and with the 7:00 a.m. bus you’ll get there at around 8:15. It’ll still be packed, but you won’t have to wait long to get in, and it won’t be as bad as it could be (this isn’t very comforting while you’re there in the moment). 

3. Visit Huaqing Palace after the Terracotta Warriors

Since you’ll likely be done with the terracotta warriors in a few hours, you’ll have the rest of the day, so take a quick bus ride (either the 306 again, or the 307) to Huaqing Palace, which is much less packed and, in my humble opinion, very fun. It's also on the way back to Xi'an. If you want you can hike up the Lishan Hill or take a cable car up, or just hang out in the very large area that houses the palace, a temple, museum, gift shop, and much more. 

4. Spend two days at Huashan Mountain

You could do one day at Huashan, which is what we did, but that isn't enough time in my opinion. There’s a bus that leaves from the bus station opposite the train station (not the same spot where the bus to the warriors is) and goes to Huashan that cost us 41 kuai apiece. From there, we took a quick 5 kuai car ride to the area that has the cable car entrance and the shuttle bus to the mountain entrance. We left Xi’an at 7:30 a.m. and arrived at the entrance of the hiking path at around 10:30 a.m. after getting off of the shuttle bus. 

Since the cable car will be jam-packed even that early, you’ll probably end up hiking the whole thing or waiting the whole day to take the cable car. To get to the North Peak of Huashan (the first peak), you need quite a few hours. The last thing you want to be doing is looking at your watch constantly to make sure that you can make the last bus to Xi’an (which leaves at around 7:00 p.m.) Either go camping in Huashan, or there are hostel options both within Huashan mountain and in the nearby town. 

The admission ticket to Huashan is also a little hefty (160 kuai) so you want to make the most of your trip. One day just isn’t enough, especially during a time when it’s so busy. 

5. Visit the Muslim Quarter during the day (or just get typical Xi’an food elsewhere)

The Muslim Food Quarter will be packed regardless, but it’s the worst at night during dinnertime. Avoid the headache and go during the day, or if it’s still too busy, get staple Xi’an food elsewhere. You can find their famous biang biang mian and Chinese hamburgers, along with kebabs, in many spots of the city, not just the Muslim Food Quarter. 

6. Bike and walk in Xi'an when you can

Bikes are readily available all throughout Xi’an, and are absurdly cheap (1.5 kuai per half hour). It’s also a decently compact town, so it’s easy to get around by walking as well. It was really hard to find available taxis, and there was always a wait to get a Didi, so if you can, choose biking or walking over taking taxis. 

However, bear in mind that a foreigner biking perhaps draws more attention than a foreigner just walking, but it’s easier to ignore because you can just zip on by.  

7. If all else fails, get a drink

The bars in Xi'an were all quite empty, so if you really want to escape the people, go down to where there are multiple bars (many are at one end of the city wall, a 10 minute walk from the Bell Tower)  and relax and have a drink! Prices are reasonable, and there was live music at a few of the places as well. Although the later the night gets, the more people will want to talk to you. Embrace it or head back to your hotel or hostel. 

If you want to feel slightly creeped out, there’s even a Terracotta warrior-themed bar (which actually felt more like a club and had a very odd ambiance).  

Prepared or scared away to visit Xi'an during a holiday? 

I’m not sure if this article made you dread your upcoming trip to Xi’an, or made you feel more prepared, but either way that’s reality. Xi’an really is spectacular, and there’s a lot to do – so just power on through and make the best of it! Or, you know, wait until you have a different time to go and relish in the slightly less crowded wonders of Xi'an.