Day trips from Xi'an?
 

Howdy folks,

I'll be flying into Xi'an for about a week in late September. I'm estimating about 3-4 days in Xi'an itself, taking my time to visit the city.

I'd like to take a few day trips, pref. using high-speed rail. Any suggestions? I was thinking maybe Luoyang for 1-2 days.

What´s about Huashan?

You can get there from Xian North Railway Station and get off at Huangshan north railway station.
There are green minivans outside the railway station to the mountain.

It´s just an 30-40 min. ride by fast train.

Thanks qpr! I do have Huashan/Pingyao on my list of possibles. A little scared of heights, but maybe the cable car is feasible. I heard Pingyao is a bit touristy?

Also thought about visiting Dunhuang. Better to take overnight train or fly?

Xian is very nice! 3-4 days in Xian is more than enough, you can take day trips:

- Huashan -- it's really a nice mountain! I walked all 5 peaks on a day trip in bad weather even. including the plank walk --> not if you scared of heights that plank walk.

i did actually 4 days in Xian including 2 day trips outside. It depedns what you want to do. my exact itinerary: http://www.christravelblog.com/china...17-2014-05-05/

- Luoyang -- possible yes, but would stay overnight or combine with Zhengzhou and also see the Shaoling monastery which is int he middle. A taxi (if you can speak some chinese) coudl take you there for the full day at 350 RMB (cheap!).
like Xian - Luoyang - zehngzhou - Xian
I did it from Beijing and flying out to Shenyang. some idea on what to do more:
http://www.christravelblog.com/china...gmen-grottoes/

must warn you, the cities itself Luoyang is BORING. Zhengzhou also compared to other cities but it's better as Luoyang.
Xian has much more athmosphere.

Shaolin is not really worth going. It is extremely touristy these days and you can easily watch their shows online and not need to physically visit.

Luoyang's grottoes and city museum are amazing and are a worthwhile day trip. Zhengzhou doesn't have that much historic architecture left standing and the artifacts in their key museum are similar to what you see in Luoyang.

You can go through my galleries to get a rough idea what to expect :
http://www.globalphotos.org/luoyang.htm
http://www.globalphotos.org/zhengzhou.htm

Luoyang :

http://www.globalphotos.org/zhengzho...4/IMG_2990.jpg

http://www.globalphotos.org/zhengzho...4/IMG_3339.jpg