The weekend in question started badly. My flight from Shanghai landed at Xi’an Xianyang at ten at night, the taxi crawled through wet traffic, and by the time I checked in near the Bell Tower it was nearly midnight. I stood at the window anyway, and below me the tower’s red lanterns floated above the roundabout like something out of a paper-cut. That was when I decided the two days ahead would follow one rule: one dynasty per day. Saturday would belong to the Tang \u2014 the wall, the towers, the museum, the lantern-lit avenue that recreates Tang-era streets. Sunday would belong to the Qin \u2014 the Terracotta Army and the hot springs palace down the eastern line. It is a split that has served every weekend visitor I have sent to Xi’an since, including me, twice.<\/p>\n
A quick word on timing before the schedule: the two-day plan assumes you land Friday night and leave Sunday evening, which is how most people actually do it. If you arrive Saturday morning instead, shift the whole thing by half a day \u2014 wall on Saturday, east line on Sunday \u2014 and accept that the museum will need to drop out if the trains don’t cooperate. Now, the plan.<\/p>\n