My German friend Chris and I had such a good time at the Terracotta Warriors together that we decided to explore the rest of Xi’an and the Shaanxi Province the following day. Most people visit Xi’an exclusively for the infamous warriors but there is a lot more to the city than that.

Did you know that Xi’an has a very large Muslim population? A wall that surrounds the entire downtown area of the city? Me neither.

The first stop on our walking tour was the Great Mosque of Xi’an (entrance fee 25 CNY/$4 USD).

The mosque, located within the city walls, covers 130,000 square meters and is the oldest mosque in the country (founded in 742 CE). It is still used by Chinese Muslims as a place of worship. Unlike most mosques in the Middle East the Great Mosque is completely Chinese in its architectural style save for some Arabic lettering and decorations.

It was a beautiful and peaceful space in an otherwise crazy neighborhood. As a woman entering the mosque I had to make sure I was respectfully covered and as tourists there were certain rooms that were off-limits as they remained sacred places of worship.

We continued our tour outside the city walls to the Small Wild Goose Pagoda and it’s corresponding museum/garden area. There’s a Large Wild Goose Pagoda too but it was quite the hike so we decided to just stick to the ‘small one’.

The Small Wild Goose Pagoda was built between 707–709, during the Tang Dynasty under Emperor Zhongzong of Tang. The pagoda stood at 147 ft tall until the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake which extensively damaged it and the pagoda now stands at a height of 141 ft with a total of fifteen tiers.

While admission to the park was free it cost 30 CNY to go up into the pagoda (which didn’t seem worth it) so we happily stayed on the ground and enjoyed the view from below as well as the gardens and the small museum at the entrance.

From the Small Wild Goose Pagoda we made our way to the Shaanxi History Museum. Chris had wanted to check it out as he’d heard good things about the museum from his guide book so I happily followed along. Entrance to the museum is free but you have to record your passport information so the government knows who has visited.

The Shaanxi History Museum, opened to the public in 1991, houses over 370,000 items historical items from the Shaanxi provence.

While it was interesting to see the relics throughout the museum, both Chris and I were woefully ignorant of Chinese history and therefore couldn’t truly appreciate the artifacts we were seeing. Plus there wasn’t a whole lot in English so some of the history displayed was lost on us. We sort of breezed through the museum (mostly because we were both starving) and felt a bit bad about it but it was still interesting regardless.

That night we made our way back to the Muslim Quarter to explore the night market.

It was a bit like the Donguamen night market in Beijing though I found it to be smaller and less hectic than Beijing (though Chris thought the exact opposite). The smells were amazing and everything looked so good!

Chris and I finally bought some candy from a woman who let us sample every kind of treat they were offering. The fun part is that you can watch them making the candy right in front of you!

They were mostly nut candies (it was the smell of peanuts and sugar that drew us both in but they also had sesame, soy, and a few nuts I was not familiar with) and boy were they delicious.

Three days in Xi’an was plenty of time to see everything the city had to offer and I was glad to have a Chinese speaking travel buddy to explore with. Xi’an is a much more traditional looking city (whereas Beijing and Chengdu are more contemporary) and I really enjoyed that about it.

What’s your favorite part about exploring a foreign city? The sights? The smells? The night markets?