Xi'an was once among the largest cities in the world. Under the Tang dynasty, in the seventh and eighth centuries, it was called Chang'an, the eastern end of the Silk Road, and a million people lived within its walls, among them merchants from Persia and Central Asia, monks from India and envoys from Japan and Korea. Today the city is a big modern metropolis of more than six million people, but its old centre still has the shape of a walled city, with a massive Ming dynasty wall, about fourteen kilometres in circumference, running round it, and a Bell Tower and Drum Tower in the middle.
The wall is the best thing to do in town. A broad path on top, wide enough for bicycles, lets you circle the old city in a couple of hours, looking down on both the old rooftops and the new towers. Inside, the Muslim Quarter is a maze of lanes filled with food stalls, selling lamb skewers, flatbread soaked in mutton soup, and the famous roujiamo, a kind of meat sandwich often called the Chinese hamburger. The Great Wild Goose Pagoda, built in the seventh century to house Buddhist scriptures brought back from India by the monk Xuanzang, rises over a quiet temple garden in the south of the city.
The Terracotta Army lies about forty kilometres to the east, near Lintong. In 1974, farmers digging a well found fragments of a life-sized clay soldier, and archaeologists have since uncovered thousands of figures, buried with the first emperor of unified China, Qin Shi Huang, who died in 210 BC. Each figure has a different face, and traces of paint show that they were once brightly coloured. The pits are covered by huge halls, and the main one is a startling sight, with ranks of soldiers standing in the earth. Arrive early, because the site is crowded from mid-morning.
On the practical side, Xi'an is a big, busy city with heavy traffic, ring roads, and restrictions on motorcycles in many areas. Foreign riders cannot normally ride in China without a Chinese licence and registered vehicle, so the sensible way to travel is by taxi, metro or on an organised tour. Fuel and food are plentiful, as in any major Chinese city.
In the evening, the lit-up city wall and the Bell Tower make a beautiful backdrop for a walk.