5 Days in Xianyang

The museum sits in a Ming-era Confucian temple and holds the 3,000-plus painted terracotta soldiers from the Yangjiawan Han tombs; end the day along the Wei River lakefront - the 818-km Wei is the Yellow River's largest tributary.

1. xianyang museum
2. xianyang lake waterfront

West to Xingping - Maoling is Emperor Wu of Han's tomb (53 years of building), and the museum stands on general Huo Qubing's mound (died 117 BC) beside the Horse-Treading-Xiongnu stone; continue to the Mawei folk village, named for the 756 AD post station.

1. xianyang maoling
2. xianyang mawei village

Northwest to Qianling, where Tang Gaozong and Empress Wu Zetian are buried together - the spirit way passes 61 stone envoy statues, many headless, before the famed blank stele; it is about 60 km from downtown, so start by mid-morning.

1. xianyang qianling

Both sit in Liquan County - Zhaoling, Tang Taizong's mountain tomb, is known through the Six Steeds reliefs (four in Xi'an's Stele Forest Museum, two in Philadelphia); walk the Zhaoling museum, then eat your way down Yuanjiacun's Guanzhong food lanes.

1. xianyang zhaoling
2. xianyang yuanjiacun

Emperor Jing's tomb (he reigned 157-141 BC) offers glass-floored corridors over the outer burial pits and the small armless pottery figures; a first-batch national archaeological park (2010), then out via the nearby airport or Xianyang station.

1. xianyang hanyangling