The 108 Tang Court Dumplings Including One Stuffed With Camel Fat, the World's 4th Largest Student City & How to Cycle Through 3 Ancient Empires on a Flat Agricultural Plain
The 108-course Xi'an dumpling banquet's 'camel hump' dumpling with actual camel fat filling; the 60,000-strong Hui Muslim community's 06:00 morning lamb market as the most authentic Xi'an local experience; the Xingjiao Temple Pagoda as Xuanzang's personal mausoleum 30km south of Xi'an; the Xi'an Aircraft Industry manufacturing China's H-6 bomber and Y-20 fuselage components; the Wei River plain cycling route past 3 Qin and Han mausoleums; and Xi'an's 1.2 million university students as the 4th largest student city in China.
The An Lushan Rebellion That Killed 36 Million and Started in a Hot Spring Palace, the Xianyang Miniature Han Army Nobody Visits & Every European Book Before 1100 Written on Sheepskin Because of One Battle Near Xi'an
The An Lushan Rebellion's 36 million deaths making it the largest pre-20th century loss of life in human history; Yang Guifei's execution at Mawei Postal Station as the most retold moment in Tang history; the 2002 archaeology proving the Epang Palace was never actually completed; the Han Yangling Museum's 40,000 naked miniature clay soldiers under glass floors; the Battle of Talas capturing paper-making craftsmen as the origin of all European paper; and the pipa's journey from Tang Chang'an to the European Renaissance lute.
The 8,000-Warrior Clay Army That Was Gray When Buried (It Wasn't), the World's First Zoning System & the Arabic Traders Who Became Xi'an's Muslim Quarter
The Terracotta Army's original painted surfaces that fade within minutes of air exposure; the Ming Dynasty city walls as the largest intact fortification in China; biangbiang noodles and the 58-stroke Chinese character used to write 'biang'; Tang Chang'an as the world's largest city at 1–2 million residents with Zoroastrian, Nestorian, and Manichaean temples; the Famen Temple's 4 Buddha finger bones as the most sacred Buddhist relics in East Asia; and the HSR connection from Xi'an North to Beijing in 4h30m.
The Monk Who Left Without Permission, Walked 25,000 km & Inspired the Monkey King; the Brown Pandas of the Qinling Range; and the Wordless Stele That Was Left Blank On Purpose
Xuanzang's unauthorized 17-year journey to India and return with 657 Sanskrit texts; Wu Zetian's Wordless Stele left blank as a deliberate statement of unmeasurable achievement; the Qinling giant panda subspecies' brown-and-white coloration as the only panda subspecies distinguishable by color; the yangrou pao mo etiquette where finely-torn bread signals patience and respect; the 61 headless foreign ambassador statues at Qianling; and the Mogao Caves' 492 cave temples as the world's largest Buddhist cave art collection.
The Mercury Rivers in the Unexcavated Tomb, the Hijacked Minaret That Looks Like a Pagoda & the Silk Road Merchant Who Was Captured for 10 Years and Opened Trade with Rome Anyway
Qin Shi Huang's mercury rivers confirmed by soil surveys; the Great Mosque's 'Imam Hat Tower' as a Chinese pagoda-minaret hybrid unique in Islamic architecture; Zhang Qian captured for 10 years by the Xiongnu and still opening the Silk Road; Mount Hua's plank walk safety record and the pre-2012 fatality history; the Datang Evernight City's 'Undefeated Nezha' dancing robot performer; and the Han Chang'an Weiyang Palace ruins as 6.5x larger than the Forbidden City.
The Mandate of Heaven Invented Here in 771 BCE, the Xi'an-to-Hamburg Freight Train That Replaced the Camel & How to Tell a Real Tang Sancai from a Weinan Reproduction
The Western Zhou's Mandate of Heaven as the 3,000-year political justification for every Chinese dynasty change; the 长安号 Xi'an-to-Hamburg freight train as the contemporary Silk Road completing the journey in 10–12 days; the Baxian Nunnery antique market's XRF authentication service for Tang sancai; the Rosewood Xi'an in the Qujiang District as the most architecturally ambitious hotel in the city; the Mount Hua East Peak sunrise at 04:30 as the most dramatic dawn photography in the region; and the Xi'an vs. Beijing comparative analysis for first-time China travelers.