When the monk Xuanzang returned to Chang'an in the seventh century after sixteen years of travel to India, he brought back hundreds of Buddhist scriptures, which he spent the rest of his life translating, and his journey later inspired the classic novel Journey to the West, with its Monkey King. After his death in 664, his remains were buried at Xingjiao Temple, on the slopes south of the city, and a five-storey brick pagoda was built over them in 669. Next to it stand two smaller pagodas for two of his disciples. The three pagodas, in a peaceful temple setting, are part of the Silk Roads World Heritage site, a tribute to one of the most famous travellers along that route.
The temple sits on a terrace overlooking the Fan river valley, with the Qinling mountains, the Zhongnan range, rising to the south. The area is less visited than the big sites in the city, and the atmosphere is calm, with monks, incense and the sound of bells. Xi'an, the modern city that grew on the site of Chang'an, the capital of the Tang dynasty and starting point of the Silk Road, is about twenty kilometres to the north, with its city walls, the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, also linked to Xuanzang, and the Muslim quarter.
The Qinling mountains are the great natural divide of China, separating the dry north from the humid south, and their forests are home to giant pandas, golden monkeys and takins. Roads lead south from the plain into the mountains through narrow valleys and over passes, with plenty of bends and fine scenery, though the traffic can be heavy at weekends. Remember that riding in China as a foreigner requires a Chinese licence and registered vehicle, that many cities restrict motorcycles in their central areas, and that expressways are usually closed to them.
There are small shops and restaurants near the temple, and Xi'an has everything you could need. The food of Xi'an is famous: roujiamo, a kind of Chinese burger of stewed meat in flatbread; biangbiang noodles, wide hand-pulled noodles with chilli oil; and yangrou paomo, bread soaked in mutton soup. To the east of the city, near Lintong, lies the Terracotta Army of the first emperor of China, one of the greatest archaeological finds of the twentieth century.