Xi'an

Farmers digging a well in 1974 outside Xi'an struck fragments of terracotta figures buried in the earth, a discovery that led to the excavation of an army of roughly 8,000 life-sized soldiers, along with horses and chariots, created around 210 BC to guard the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, China's first emperor. It remains one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the 20th century, and excavation of the wider mausoleum complex, believed to hold the emperor's still-unopened tomb, continues to this day.

What makes the Terracotta Army genuinely remarkable beyond its scale is the individuality of each figure, no two soldiers share identical facial features, achieved through a modular construction system that combined standardized bodies with uniquely sculpted heads and expressions. That level of craftsmanship, applied across thousands of figures rather than a handful of showpieces, reflects the resources an emperor obsessed with immortality was willing to commit to his own afterlife.

Xi'an's city wall, first built in the 14th century during the Ming Dynasty and remaining one of the most completely preserved ancient city walls in China, stretches roughly 14 kilometers in a rectangular loop around the old city center. Visitors can walk or cycle the full circuit, and doing so by bike has become one of the most popular ways to see the old city from an elevated, unhurried vantage point.

The Muslim Quarter, home to Xi'an's Hui Muslim community for centuries, holds some of the most highly regarded street food in China, its narrow lanes filled with vendors selling yangrou paomo, a lamb and bread soup, alongside skewered meats and hand-pulled noodles reflecting a distinct blend of Chinese and Central Asian culinary influence built up through Xi'an's historic role as the eastern terminus of the Silk Road.

Xi'an served as the capital of China during multiple dynasties, including the Tang Dynasty, one of the country's most culturally significant periods, and that legacy as a former imperial capital and Silk Road hub gives the city a historical density that extends well beyond the Terracotta Army alone, even though the army remains, understandably, the reason most visitors come.