2024 Chinese New Year Family Trip: Luoyang, Henan & Xi'an, Shaanxi
For the 2024 Spring Festival trip, we didn't book in advance. Most scenic spots were sold out of tickets. We had made reservations before the New Year to ensure a smooth visit.
Since the high-speed train to Xi'an passed through Luoyang, we stayed there for two days. In the end, our family all agreed that Luoyang offered a better experience.
We started booking hotels for the Luoyang-Xi'an Spring Festival trip a month in advance. For around the same price of 200 RMB, hotels in Xi'an offered better value for money.
The inn we stayed at in Luoyang was Lijing Xiaoyuan (inside Lijingmen Pedestrian Street). The location was excellent—step out for shopping, food, and Hanfu styling services. However, the hardware was average, and the room was small.
Xi'an Hanshe Inn: an apartment-style inn with good facilities. The subway entrance was just a few minutes' walk away, along with Wanda Plaza and a late-night snack street, making it very convenient for grabbing a bite to eat.
Xi'an Hanshe Inn, Wanda Mansion, Yujiazhai Exit C.
[Day 1]: Longmen Grottoes
We took the high-speed train from Guangdong on the first day of the lunar new year, heading to Luoyang. Along the way, the snow in Hubei, which had just experienced a heavy snowfall, had not completely melted.
After more than six hours, we arrived at Luoyang Longmen Station at 2:30 PM. Since the Longmen Grottoes were not far from the station, we went directly there with our luggage. This year, the Longmen Grottoes required advance reservation for tickets. We had already bought ours before the New Year; we heard that those who tried to buy tickets on the spot usually couldn't get any.
On the first day of the lunar new year, the Longmen Grottoes were already quite crowded, but it didn't affect the visit.
The Longmen Grottoes Visitor Center offers luggage storage, but it's quite far from the entrance, so you need to buy a ticket for the electric cart (10 RMB per person). After visiting the grottoes, it was already past 7 PM and dark. Outside the visitor center, many private drivers were soliciting passengers. One offered to take our group of six (including two children) to the subway station for 30 RMB, which we thought was reasonable. It reminded me of the unpleasant experience in Wuyuan during National Day, where drivers would quote hundreds of yuan.
After getting off at Lijingmen subway station and passing through Lijingmen, we arrived at our booked inn. The pedestrian street was packed with people, and there were plenty of things to see and eat. Luoyang's "Bu Fan Tang" (non-return soup) was really delicious—hot and not greasy, perfect for winter. The prices in Luoyang were also quite affordable.
[Day 2]: Luoyang Old Town / Sui-Tang Dynasty Site Botanical Garden
During the day, we rented Hanfu and got styling for the kids, costing 120 RMB for the whole day—a reasonable price. Exiting Lijingmen, we rented a shared e-bike and rode through the streets and alleys to Yingtianmen, feeling wonderfully comfortable.
In the evening, we went to the Sui-Tang Dynasty Site Botanical Garden to see the lantern show and the intangible cultural heritage performance of thousand-year-old art—Dashuhua (iron flower splashing).
Dashuhua originated in the Northern Song Dynasty, flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and has a history of over a thousand years. During the performance, a double-layer flower shed six meters high is built in an open area, densely covered with fresh willow branches, tied with fireworks and firecrackers. In the middle of the shed stands a six-meter-tall pole, making the total height over ten meters. A furnace is set up nearby to melt iron. More than ten performers take turns using wooden paddles to splash the molten iron (over a thousand degrees Celsius) onto the shed, creating iron sparks up to ten meters high. The sparks ignite the fireworks, accompanied by a "dragon threading through flowers" performance, creating a spectacular, thrilling, and festive scene.
[Day 3]: Xi'an's Great Tang All Day Mall / Giant Wild Goose Pagoda
A one-and-a-half-hour train ride from Longmen Station to Xi'an North Station. After arriving at our Xi'an inn and resting a bit, we went to the famous Great Tang All Day Mall in the afternoon. It turned out to be the worst experience of our entire trip—the most crowded. Due to the massive crowds, the performances were moved to the afternoon, and by the time we pushed our way in, they had already ended.
With the kids, we took a quick look and left, but the crowd control made it hard to get a taxi. We ended up hopping on a random bus, rode for seven or eight stops to a less crowded area, and then hailed a taxi back to the inn.
Scenery seen from the high-speed train in Shaanxi.
[Day 4]: Xi'an Terracotta Warriors
During the National Day holiday, we went to Huangling in Wuyuan. We left at 8 AM but it was too crowded; we waited in line for four hours. This time, hearing that the Terracotta Warriors were also extremely crowded, we decided to leave earlier. We got up at 6 AM, took a taxi at 6:30, arrived at the Terracotta Warriors at 7:30, and waited in line for about half an hour to enter. Early morning wasn't too bad; with a little patience, we could squeeze to the front and see the warriors.
We had pre-booked a group tour with commentary before the New Year. Many people complained that they couldn't get tickets upon arriving in Xi'an. Fortunately, we had made advance reservations for these major attractions.
Tip: If you want to visit Lishan Garden, don't follow the crowd. We followed the flow and exited the scenic area, missing Lishan Garden.
Getting a taxi back was quite convenient; we could hail a ride immediately outside the scenic area.
We rested in the afternoon and went to see the Bell Tower, Drum Tower, and the City Wall in the evening. Because Xi'an was a sub-venue for this year's Spring Festival Gala, the City Wall was especially crowded. We hadn't bought tickets in advance, and by the time we arrived, they were sold out. We could only purchase tickets for the 16th, but unfortunately, we had to go home on the 16th.
[Day 5]: Academy Gate / Daming Palace
We originally wanted to go to Tang Paradise, but we heard it was extremely crowded. In the end, we went to Daming Palace, which was indeed very large.
Daming Palace was the political center and national symbol of the Tang Dynasty, located on the Longshou Plateau north of the Tang capital Chang'an (present-day Xi'an). It was the largest of the three main palaces of Chang'an (Daming Palace, Taiji Palace, and Xingqing Palace), also called the "Eastern Palace." Starting from Emperor Gaozong of Tang, 17 Tang emperors conducted state affairs there over a period of more than 240 years. Daming Palace was the most magnificent palace complex of the Tang Empire and the largest palace complex in the world at that time.
[Day 6]: Xi'an Museum / Small Wild Goose Pagoda
The Shaanxi History Museum was really hard to book; we tried for a week and couldn't get tickets. So we switched to the Xi'an Museum.
Xi'an Museum is a museum in Xi'an, Shaanxi, that integrates a museum, historical sites, and urban gardens. It opened to the public in 2007. It is famous for its precious cultural relics, a thousand-year-old pagoda from the Tang Dynasty, the melodious morning bell of the Yan Pagoda, and beautiful garden landscapes.
Xi'an Museum is located in the south of Xi'an city, covering about 245 mu (about 16 hectares). It consists of three parts: the museum area, the Small Wild Goose Pagoda (Jianfu Temple) historical scenic area, and the garden sightseeing area—unique among domestic museums. Xi'an Museum officially opened on May 18, 2007, "International Museum Day."
The Small Wild Goose Pagoda, also known as "Jianfu Temple Pagoda," is located inside Jianfu Temple in Anren Ward of Chang'an (now in the southern suburbs of Xi'an). It was built during the Jinglong period of the Tang Dynasty and, together with the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, is an important landmark of Chang'an preserved to this day. The Small Wild Goose Pagoda is a typical example of early Chinese square, dense-eave brick pagodas. Originally 15 stories, it now has 13 stories, standing 43.4 meters tall. It is a graceful pagoda, a heritage of Tang Dynasty Buddhist architecture, and a symbol of the integration of Buddhism into the Central Plains and its assimilation into Han Chinese culture.
