Getting to Xi’an
for May 2027
Everything you need to book time off and arrange your travel.
The short version
If you read nothing else, read this.
Dates and time off
The wedding is Saturday 15 May. The two days with us are the Thursday and Friday before it.
| Date | What’s happening | Where you should be |
|---|---|---|
| Mon 10 – Tue 11 May | Long-haul travel days | In transit |
| Wed 12 May | Arrivals — we collect you | With us by dinner |
| Thu 13 May | City Wall, Bell & Drum Towers, Muslim Quarter, Big Wild Goose Pagoda, welcome dinner | With us all day |
| Fri 14 May | Terracotta Warriors and Huaqing Hot Springs | With us all day |
| Sat 15 May | Tea ceremony in the morning (family) · Ceremony around midday | At the hotel |
| Sun 16 May | Check-out and departures — we’ll get you to the airport or the station | Heading home |
| Mon 17 – Tue 18 May | Return travel | Home |
The order of the two tour days may shift a little nearer the time, depending on tickets and traffic. The wedding day won’t.
Visas Important for US passports
Whether you need one depends on which passport you hold, and the rules have changed repeatedly in recent years. US passport holders should assume they need a visa.
Everything is on its own page so you can read only the part that applies to you: visa information →
Getting to Xi’an
Where you’re heading
By air, Xi’an Xianyang International Airport (XIY) — roughly 35 km from the hotel, about forty minutes by car. By high-speed rail, Xi’an North station, which is the one we use. We’re arranging cars either way, so you don’t need to plan onward transport.
How you’ll likely get here
- Connect through an Asian hub. Most of you will fly into Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo or Singapore, then take a domestic connection to XIY.
- High-speed rail is excellent. If you’re routing through Beijing or Shanghai anyway, the train to Xi’an North is comfortable and scenic — roughly four to six hours from Beijing, longer from Shanghai. It sells out; book ahead.
- Leave a long connection. If your international and domestic legs are on separate tickets, you may need to clear immigration and re-check bags. Three to four hours minimum.
The catch is that separate tickets aren’t protected — if the first flight is late and you miss the second, no airline owes you anything, and your bags won’t check through. Leave a generous gap, ideally an overnight, and it can save you a lot.
Fares typically open around eleven months ahead. Ask us before you buy if you’d like a second opinion on a routing.
Your hotel
Tang Dynasty West Market Hotel, Xi’an. On us.
The ceremony, the celebration and your room are all at the same property, in different parts of the hotel. On the wedding day you won’t need to go anywhere.
Tang Dynasty West Market Hotel
No. 118 Laodong South Road, Lianhu District, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710068, China
西安大唐西市酒店 · 陕西省西安市莲湖区劳动南路118号
Show the Chinese line to any taxi driver. Google Maps is unreliable inside China; Amap is what locals use.
| If you’re coming for | Nights we cover | Check out |
|---|---|---|
| The full trip | 12, 13, 14, 15 May — four nights | Sunday 16 May |
| The wedding only | 14, 15 May — two nights | Sunday 16 May |
- Please don’t book your own room. If you already have, tell us and we’ll sort it out.
- Tell us about room preferences, accessibility needs, or children travelling with you.
- Landing early in the morning? Say so and we’ll try to arrange early check-in.
The two days with us
Thursday and Friday are ours — the City Wall, Terracotta Warriors, the Muslim Quarter and more, entirely at our cost. Details, and what else is worth seeing in the city: about Xi’an →
Weather and what to pack
Mid-May in Xi’an is properly warm — daytime highs usually in the high 20s°C (low 80s°F), sometimes pushing past 30°C. Evenings drop to the mid-teens°C (high 50s°F). Rain is possible but not the norm.
- Layers — warm days, cool evenings.
- Comfortable walking shoes. We’re serious about this one.
- Sun protection.
- A light rain jacket or compact umbrella.
- Prescription medication in original packaging, with a copy of the prescription.
- A power adapter — China runs on 220V, with Type A, C and I sockets.
What to wear for the wedding itself: what to wear →
On the ground
Data and staying connected
Buy a Trip.com Asia eSIM before you fly. John uses one — cheap, reliable, and no internet restrictions once you land. Get the regional Asia plan rather than a China-only one; it also covers your layover and any side trips. Activate it before you leave home.
Paying for things
China runs largely on mobile payments — Alipay and WeChat Pay — and many smaller vendors don’t take cards at all. Both now accept Western phone numbers and credit cards. Set it up before you fly, not at the airport. Carry some cash (Chinese yuan, CNY) as a backup.
Getting around on your own time
Xi’an has a clean, cheap metro and plenty of taxis. Little English is spoken outside hotels, so it helps to have destinations saved in Chinese characters to show a driver. We’ll give you a card with the hotel address in Chinese.
Language
You do not need to speak any Chinese. Hotel staff will have some English, and we’ll be around throughout.
Low priority — only if you like being prepared
Apps worth downloading
- Alipay (支付宝) — pay for almost anything, plus metro QR codes, taxis and a built-in translator. The single most useful download.
- WeChat (微信) — messaging and payments. How the country communicates.
- Amap (高德地图) — the best maps in China, with an English mode. Worth knowing that Google Maps is unreliable here.
- DiDi (滴滴出行) — ride-hailing, English interface available.
- Trip.com — trains, flights, hotels and your eSIM, all in English.
- Pleco — Chinese dictionary with a camera mode. Point it at a menu and it reads it.
Low priority — entirely your own adventure
Making a trip of it
You’re crossing the world to get here, and the time difference will cost you a day at each end. If you have the leave, it’s worth turning this into something longer — high-speed rail makes much of the country easy to reach from Xi’an, and you’re already most of the way there.
We’ve done the long flights too.
Book any of this yourself, and please don’t feel you need to. We mention it only because you’re coming such a long way.
但愿人长久，千里共婵娟
We know this is a long way to come. Thank you for even considering it.