A Family Spring Festival Trip to Luoyang and Xi'an in 2024
Travelling during the 2024 Chinese New Year, if you hadn't made advance bookings, tickets for most scenic spots were impossible to get. Our family had pre-booked everything well before the holiday, which let us enjoy our trip smoothly. Because the high-speed train to Xi'an passes through Luoyang, we decided to stop there for two days. In the end, we all agreed Luoyang gave us a better overall experience.
For this Luoyang–Xi'an Spring Festival trip, we started booking hotels a month in advance. At around 200 yuan per night, Xi'an's hotels offered better value for money. In Luoyang we stayed at Lijing Xiaoyuan (inside Lijingmen Pedestrian Street) – the location was fantastic, step outside and you're in the heart of the action with street food, shopping, and Hanfu styling all around. But the facilities were basic, and the rooms were quite small. In Xi'an we stayed at Hanshe Inn, a serviced-apartment style hotel with decent facilities. Just a few minutes' walk to the metro station, Wanda Plaza, and a night snack street—very convenient for grabbing local bites. Address: Exit C of Yujiazhai Metro Station, Wanda Mansion; look for Xi'an Hanshe Inn.
【Day 1】Longmen Grottoes
We set off on the first day of the lunar new year by high-speed train from Guangdong to Luoyang. Along the way, we saw snow still covering Hubei from a recent heavy snowfall. After over six hours, we arrived at Luoyang Longmen Station at 2:30 pm. Since Longmen Grottoes is close to the station, we headed straight there with our luggage. This year, Longmen Grottoes required advance ticket booking; we had purchased ours before New Year's. I heard that those trying to buy on the spot often couldn't get tickets. On the first day of the new year, it was already quite crowded, but it didn't disrupt the sightseeing. The visitor center offers luggage storage, but it's a long walk from the entrance, so you need to buy a shuttle cart ticket (10 yuan per person). After exploring the grottoes, it was already dark, past 7 pm. Outside the visitor center, many private drivers offered rides; they charged 30 yuan to take our group of six (adults and kids) to the metro station—a fair price, we thought. It reminded me of a bad experience last National Day in Wuyuan, where drivers quoted several hundred yuan for a short trip. Exiting Lijingmen metro station and passing through Lijingmen, we were right at our inn. The pedestrian street was buzzing with crowds, plenty to see and eat. Luoyang's 'Bu Fan Soup' was truly delicious, hot and never greasy in winter. Prices in Luoyang were also very reasonable.
【Day 2】Luoyang Old Town / Sui-Tang Dynasties Relic Botanical Garden
During the day, we rented Hanfu costumes and styling for the kids, 120 yuan for the day—quite affordable. After leaving Lijingmen, we scanned a shared e-bike and weaved through the alleys all the way to Yingtianmen; it felt so freeing. In the evening, we went to the Sui-Tang Dynasties Relic Botanical Garden for the lantern show and the intangible heritage performance: Dashuhua (striking iron liquid into fireworks). Dashuhua dates back to the Northern Song Dynasty, flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and has over a thousand years of history. The performance uses a 6-meter-high two-story scaffold covered with fresh willow branches, firecrackers and fuses. In the center stands a 6-meter pole, making the total height over 10 meters. Nearby, molten iron is heated in a furnace. Over ten performers take turns flinging ladles of iron liquid at the scaffold, creating showers of sparks over ten meters high. The sparks ignite the firecrackers and, combined with a 'dragon threading through flowers' act, create a breathtaking, joyous and festive spectacle.
【Day 3】Xi'an – Datang Everbright City / Dayan Pagoda
A 1.5-hour high-speed train ride from Longmen Station to Xi'an North Station. After checking in and a short rest, we headed to the famous Datang Everbright City in the afternoon. This turned out to be the worst experience of our whole trip—extremely crowded. Due to the massive crowds, performances were moved to the afternoon, and by the time we squeezed in, they had already ended. We strolled around briefly with the kids and left, but with crowd control and traffic restrictions, we walked a long way and still couldn't get a taxi. Finally, we hopped on a random bus, rode seven or eight stops to a less congested area, and then caught a taxi back to our inn. The view of Shaanxi from the train was a silver-white winter landscape.
【Day 4】Terracotta Warriors
Last National Day in Wuyuan Huangling, arriving at 8 am, we queued for four hours. So hearing that the Terracotta Warriors would also be super crowded, we decided to go early: woke up at 6 am, took a taxi at 6:30, arrived at 7:30, and queued only about half an hour to get in. The early morning crowd wasn't too bad, and if you waited a bit, you could squeeze to the front to see the warriors up close. We had booked a group guided tour ticket before the New Year. Many people complained they couldn't get tickets upon arrival—fortunately, we had pre-booked all major attractions. A tip: if you want to see Lishan Garden (Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor), don't just follow the flow of people. We blindly followed the crowd out of the scenic area and missed it. Getting a taxi back was quite easy; we hailed a ride-hailing car right outside the entrance. After resting all afternoon, we visited the Bell Tower, Drum Tower, and the City Wall in the evening. Because the Xi'an branch of the Spring Festival Gala was a hit this year, the City Wall was incredibly packed. 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 were leaving on the 16th.
【Day 5】Shuyuanmen / Daming Palace
Originally we planned to visit Tang Paradise, but hearing about the enormous crowds, we went to Daming Palace instead. And it is indeed vast. Daming Palace was the political center and national symbol of the Tang Dynasty. Located on Longshou Plateau north of Tang's capital Chang'an (today's Xi'an), it was the largest of the three main palace complexes (Daming Palace, Taiji Palace, Xingqing Palace) and known as the 'Eastern Palace'. From Emperor Gaozong onwards, 17 Tang emperors handled state affairs here over more than 240 years. Daming Palace was the most magnificent architectural 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 is notoriously hard to get tickets for; we tried for a week and failed, so we switched to the Xi'an Museum. The Xi'an Museum combines a museum, historic sites, and city gardens in one. It opened in 2007 and is famous for its precious artifacts, the thousand-year-old Tang pagoda, the melodious morning bell of the Wild Goose Pagoda, and beautiful landscape. Covering about 245 mu (16.3 hectares) south of Xi'an, it consists of the museum area, the Small Wild Goose Pagoda and Jianfu Temple historic area, and a landscape garden—unique among Chinese museums. The Small Wild Goose Pagoda is located inside Jianfu Temple in the Tang Dynasty's Anren Ward (now southern suburb of Xi'an). Also called "Jianfu Temple Pagoda", it was built during the Jinglong era of the Tang Dynasty and, along with the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, is an important surviving landmark of Tang Chang'an. The Small Wild Goose Pagoda is a classic example of early Chinese square multi-eave brick pagodas. Originally 15 storeys, now 13 storeys at 43.4 meters tall, elegant in shape. It's a treasure of Tang Buddhist architectural art and a symbol of Buddhism's integration into the Central Plains and Han culture.
