Inner City Private Day Tour To Big Wild Goose Pagoda, City Wall &Muslim Quarter

Meet your personal tour guide at 7:30 a.m, you will head for Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Built in Tang Dynasty, this pagoda extents a history of 1,400 years. It is built inside the Da Ci’en Temple, a temple that was built for famous monk Xuan Zang in Tang Dynasty. He has contributed significantly to the bringing in and spreading of Buddhism. As a devoted monk, he travelled far to India to bring back the true Buddhism scriptures and ideology. After he got back, the emperor rewarded him a temple and pagoda for him to house what he brought back from India and better glorify the Buddhism. The pagoda has been restored a couple of times in later generations until the latest time is in 1964. Your guide will take you to view the inside of temple and the outside of pagoda. If you want to go inside the pagoda, you will need to cover this expense on spot. At present, this place is built as a large park where locals do various kinds of activities. In the north square of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, you will see a large fountain, which is said to be the largest fountain set in Asia. In every few hours, there would be a splendid fountain show. You may catch some glimpse if lucky.

As a symbolic historical site in Xian, Ancient City Wall is the best-preserved city wall in China so far. The whole wall is 13.74 km long, 12 m’ high, bottom 18 m wide and top 15 m wide. It was originally built on the basis of Tang Dynasty imperial city, including a series of infrastructures like city river, corner tower, and others. The whole wall costed about 8 years to complete in Ming Dynasty, covering a history of over 600 years. There are four gates, including Changle Gate in the east, Anding Gate in the west, Yongning Gate in the south and Anyuan Gate in the north. Served as part of the city defense system, the wall was designed as thickness wider than height, which makes the wall very steady. The wall top is wide and stable enough for vehicles to go around. You are advised to rent a bike and ride along the wall.

In the afternoon, you will head to the world famous Muslim Quarter. As the name indicates, it’s a community where most majority of Muslims in Xian lived. Dating back to Yuan Dynasty, Muslim Quarter has a history of over 1000 years. Nowadays, it’s much more famous for its food culture. Late 1990s, some Muslims rent here and pioneered in catering industry. The government then attracted more businessmen to enhance its influences, which makes it among the most noted food street in China. The Drum Tower actually serves a gateway to the food paradise. Access the community, you will be surprisingly discover that it quite big, covering north Guangji Street, Beiyuanmen, Xiyangshi, Dapiyuan, Huajuexiang, Sajinqiao, etc.. Every alley is stuffed with all kinds of catering business, big as restaurants, small as vendors standing on the street. Local people usually come and hunt for the most authentic featured food. Some people may just come and satisfy their nose and eyes.

Behind the various tempting food in Muslim Quarter, you will discover a couple of mosques where Muslims worship their religion. The biggest and most worthy-visiting one is Great Mosque.

Xian Great Mosque was once called “Qingxiu Mosque” and “Dongda Mosque”. It’s situated inside the Huajue Alley, northwest of Drum Tower in West Street. Initially built in Year Twenty-fifth (1392) of Hongwu Ming Dynasty, the mosque has under through three renovations in Jiajing, Wanji of Ming Dynasty and Qianlong in Qing Dynasty, thus formed the current formation. It features architectural characteristics of Ming and Qing Dynasty, shaping like a big square with over 12300 sq meters, hosting about 180 rooms from yards, halls, to rooms. It is also the largest and best-preserved Islamic mosque in China that used traditional architectural forms.