6-Day China Itinerary: Xi’an | Chengdu

October 4, 2025

We toured China from 20 June to 25 June 2025 (Summer Season) for 6 days 6 nights with 2 children (16 yrs old & 9yrs old). Here’s a summary of our China Xi’an and Chengdu Itinerary. The Airline we took was Scoot Airlines and the flight hours was about 5.5 hours.

We visited 2 main locations: Xi’an and Chengdu and a total of 16 places. Our Accommodations was Yunheyebo Hotel – South Gate of Bell and Drum Tower

What We Achieved for Our First Trip to Xi’an and Chengdu:

Seeing Emperor Qinshihuang’s Terracotta Army in real life- close up and not just from pictures!
Learnt many interesting information from our tour guide about the Terracotta Army and the Han Dynasty era’s relics.
Saw many Pandas in the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, the hometown of the giant panda in Sichuan province.
Understood how China civilisation started from the Shaanxi Province from the Shaanxi History Museum.
Fed tigers from a Safari bus ride in Xi’an Qinling Wildlife Park.
Saw many fierce animals such as bears, wolves, lions, tigers, gorillas in close-up.
Fed llamas and deers.
Watched a magic and acrobatic performance.
Watched a theatrical production on the travellers of Silk Road.
Saw the scriptures brought back from India by the Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang and learnt more about his journey. Big Wild Goose Pagoda was built to house the scriptures he brought back.
Walked and cycled on the ancient Xi’an City wall which was built since 1370 and is the most complete city wall that has remained until this day.
Tried local Xi’an food: Biang Biang noodles, Rou Jia Mo.
Took the comfy High Speed Rail ride from Xi’an to Chengdu.
Commissioned my dog’s portrait from a China artist.

6-DAY FAMILY TRAVEL ITINERARY FOR XI’AN | CHENGDU

DAY 1 – Xi’an

[ Read Detailed Trip Experiences – China Xi’an Day 1 ]

Flight to Xi’an, started at 7pm and reaching at 1am early in the morning the next day.
We booked a Klook transfer (Klook Airport Transfer Link – type in your hotel name ) from Xi’an Xianyang International Airport straight to our hotel (about 1 hr journey). He waited for us at arrival with a placard.
Checked in Hotel Yunheyebo at 2am (24 hrs front desk).
Ate buffet breakfast in hotel
Shopping at Kaiyuan Shopping Mall 开元广场 / Minsheng Department Store 民生 / Lunch at Luomashi Walking Street Area 骡马市
Missed the timing to visit Giant Wild Goose Pagoda and explore walk the Giant Wild Goose Scenic Area instead. [Visited it on Day 6 morning]
Dinner at Xi’an Joy City Mall (Da Yue Cheng 大悦城
Grand Tang Dynasty Ever Bright City 大唐不夜城 – A pedestrian street for explore walk

DAY 2 – Xi’an

[ Read Detailed Trip Experiences- China Xi’an Day 2 ]

Xi’an Ancient City Walk and Cycle 西安古城墙
Shu Yuan Men 书院门 – commissioned my dog’s portrait
Da Tang Mi Jing 大唐秘境 Craft Souvenir Shop – Bought food fridge magnets / bell tower model
The Muslim Quarter 回坊 / 回民街 – tried Xi’an Muslim food
Dinner at Xiao Liu Tang Bao 小六汤包 Wanda Plaza (Daming Palace Store)
Legend of Camel Bell Show驼铃传奇 – Xi’an Huaxia Cultural Tourism Grand Theatre

DAY 3 – Xi’an

[ Read Detailed Trip Experiences – China Xian Day 3 ]

Xi’an Qinling Wildlife Park – Safari Ride / Watched Performances
Dinner at Chuan Shi Duo 回转小火锅 in Xi’an Nanmen Hopson One 合生汇西安

DAY 4 – Xi’an

Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum to see the Terracotta Army （Bing Ma Yong) 秦始皇陵兵马俑 (1st part of China Highlights Guided Tour with Lunch)
Han Yang Ling 汉阳陵 – Burial Site of the Han Dynasty’s Sixth Emperor Han – Liu Qi and his empress Wang (2nd part of China Highlights Guided Tour)
Dinner was at Sushi Express (not recommended – disappointing selection)

DAY 5 – Chengdu Day Trip

[ Read Detailed Trip Experiences – China Xi’an to Chengdu Day Trip]

High Speed Rail from Xi’an to Chengdu (4 hours) – Bought from Trip.com
Lunch near the subway
Watched Pandas in Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding 成都大熊猫繁育研究基地
Planned to visit Jinli Pedestrian Street but did not go there due to lack of time and heavy rain.
Went shopping at MixC Shopping Mall 成都万象城
Head back to Xi’an via HSR (4 hours)

DAY 6 – Xi’an

[ Read Detailed Trip Experiences – China Xi’an Day 5]

Packed and checked out with luggage stored in hotel
Da Ci En Temple and Giant Wild Goose Pagoda (South Entrance)
Lunch in Xi’an Joy City Mall (Da Yue Cheng 大悦城）
Shaanxi History Museum 陕西历史博物馆 – the most complete artifacts collection for Shaanxi Region (where the first Chinese people settled)
SAGA International Shopping Mall at Xiaozhai area
Collect luggage from hotel and repacked shopping stuff
Arrival at Xi’an Airport at 11pm
Scoot Flight back to Singapore at 1am

Travelling with a 9-yr-old and a 16-yr-old in China

This was both their second trip to China and first time to Xi’an and Chengdu.

9 year old Ling-

My girl did not remember our first time to China (Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou) when she was about 2 plus years old. Thus, this was a new experience for her. We watch “Xiao Hong Shu” (aka RedNote) almost every night before bed together so she is familiar with China stuff. However, she still has problems speaking in Chinese and understanding some deeper Chinese words as she is only Primary 4. Overall, she went crazy over shopping for the cute stuff like character blind boxes, miniature items and Rolife Super Creator houses. She kept buying them with each shopping mall we visited. She loved visiting the Wildlife Park and feeding animals. She also enjoy visiting the ancient buildings but was totally not interested in viewing the historical exhibits in the museums.

16 year old Dar –

The boy has visited China when he was 9 years old (Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou) and went to Beijing at 11 on his school trip before. Thus, this trip added two new cities- Xi’an and Chengdu to his travel experiences. He likes historical and architectural stuff like me so we kept discussing about them while Vin and the girl went together. My hubby was only half-interested in China history. He prefers nature walks more. T^T I was really glad to have a buddy to talk to with the same historical and artistic interest! ( The two of us kept taking photographs because we enjoy looking at pretty structures )

Exploring in Hot Weather – Clothing Needs

The weather was summer weather and the sun kept beating heavily down on us when we explored.

We constantly wore our sun protection hat and even wore protective hand sleeves on our trip to Qinling Wildlife Park as the heat felt as if it was burning our skins. We come from tropical Singapore, yet felt the sun rays were quite different over here. It was extremely hot when we visited the Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site where we had to walk a while to reach the place and I had to use my UV umbrella to shade more.

Then, the next day, it rained very heavily instead, dampening our spirits when we visited Chengdu. The weather was really erratic.

In Summary, bring along

UV Umbrella which can also be a rain umbrella for each member.
UV Wide-brimmed hat with string which can cover the back of the neck area. [ Check out the hats that I could easy place in our bag to unfold when needed!]
Wear Cooling Summer clothing such as Dri-fit material (we kept perspiring and wet our shirts) or cotton t-shirts
Wear long pants to protect from the sun rays. Even if it is stuffy to wear, it is still better than being sunburnt! Long clothing will also prevent mosquitoes or insect bites in the forest.
Apply UV sunscreen to face and exposed areas if outdoors for long hours. (We use Innisfree sunscreen for the face!)

Drinks – Hard to find cold bottled milk tea?

Our common practice is to buy drinks in convenience stores and bring them out for walks as we explore the day alongside drinking water. However, this time it was hard to find our favourite orange juice, apple juice or milk tea in a convenience store’s cooler fridge. I found bottled milk tea at normal temperature from a mini supermarket instead.

With milk tea stores proliferating in China, people prefer drinking them fresh from the cup. CHAGEE is a famous brand for milk tea lovers so we did try it once. However, as we were constantly on the go to explore, I do not want to carry a cup while walking and finishing my milk tea fast. I rather put the milk tea in a vacuum bottle to keep it cool and drink when I want. Thus, I brought my Thermos Flask to fill with the milk tea (after cooling in hotel fridge) daily. (Shopee Link to buy)

Food – Restaurants or Convenience Stores

In other countries such as Japan or Taiwan, we would often buy convenience store food (good quality bentos, onigiri) as dinner and some snacks as our stomach seemed to empty pretty fast after a main meal.

In China, restaurants food were relatively cheap and often in big portions. There were also plenty of eateries around so you would have no lack of food choices if you have no diet restrictions. For this trip, we always ended up eating too much in the restaurants and had no space left for snacks. Ling could not eat much of the main meal and prefer snacks so I bought some snacks for her such as potato chips, milk puffs or biscuits. On the street, we would buy ice-creams.

Our favourite hotpot restaurant Chuan Shi Duo – ate twice during this trip in different locations

Ling also requested for corn dog twice from the convenience store as supper when we went back to the hotel. The convenience store near our hotel tops up their food at 11pm! One taxi driver said that Xi’an is known as a “never-sleep city”不夜城. People start coming out for supper at 11pm. They sold hot food such as grilled finger food, corn dogs and steamed items.

Toilet Needs

People who dislikes squatting toilets might think twice going to China. I was surprised that even the most upscale shopping malls were cubicles full of squatting seats, NO sitting toilet at all. I think I only found two sitting toilets once in a mall (could not remember which mall). The good thing is, if you find a sitting toilet, it would be empty as no one in the queue wants to use it. My girl and I was the only one using the seated toilet. Fortunately, they were clean mostly (still,I would place disposable toilet seat covers on the seat in case). Once, I still saw footsteps on one of the sitting toilets as someone had “squatted” on it.

Also we were often treated to a display of”used toilet papers” in the open bin beside the squatting toilet, disgusting and smelly. The practice is the same like in Taiwan. I still do not understand why we cannot flush them in the toilet bowl?

The male’s toilets were full of cigarette smells which Vin and Dar had to endure when they go in. There is no rule on “no smoking”. Therefore, Dar tried not to enter the shopping mall’s toilets or would quickly exit after washing hands.

Second Hand Smoke

The smell of cigarette smoke was in many places when we walked and even in the toilets. People smoked as they walked or stood in groups to smoke. I wore masks for the first two days but my children refused to wear as it was uncomfortable in the hot weather. Thus, my girl developed a runny nose which we solved with medication we had brought overseas while my nose soon became blocked. Fortunately, they maintain a “no-smoking rule” on the high speed rail so the toilets and seating area were clean.

Shopping and Souvenirs

We mainly bought blind boxes and plushies for my girl. Dar bought small building souvenirs and got himself a HSR model and a toy car model from SAGA international mall on the last day.

For trip souvenirs, we took a family photo with the seal at Qinling Wildlife Park and a family photo with the Terracotta Army backdrop in the museum. As usual, we would buy fridge magnets (one of Xi’an and one of Chengdu) for each region we visit. We also bought local food magnets (found Biang Biang noodle magnet) from the souvenir shop beside Muslim street called “大唐秘境”.

Things We Bought: