A Xi'an Train Transportation Question + Any Other Advice You Would Like To Offer

I'm going to look into going directly form airport to Beijing hostel instead of airport hotel. Then we will be able to spend 3 days in Beijing.

Do not bother with an airport hotel. PEK airport is relatively close to central Beijing, connected by express railway/subway. It's also a much more pleasant place to spend time.

I suggested a night train to my Dad before from Beijing to Xi'an but he thinks it will be better to go during the day so that daylights allows us to see what we are passing by. At this point though everything is up for change.

The train ride from Beijing to Xi'an is not terribly interesting. Very polluted flat plains. There are some hills but nothing to really keep you interested. You wont get really interesting train journeys until you get out to Xining.

We want to pack in as much as we absolutely (yet realistically) can.>

this is a fallacy. You do not pack in more by visiting more, further flung places. You miss out on all the other things to do as you rush from one 'highlight' to the next. You wind up spending more time in taxis, subways, airports, and train stations. All of which can be enormously beautiful experiences I'm sure, but not the reason to go in the first place.

And if your choice is to spend the bulk of that pre-Xining time in Xi'an, then you don't need a hotel in Beijing at all. You would prearrange a car/driver to pick you up at Beijing Airport, go to Mutianyu Great Wall, then bring you back to airport, and take a mid-afternoon flight to Xi'an.

We will be arriving in Xi'an at 2:18 pm. We hope that is early enough for us to still be able to visit the Terracotta Warrior Museum that same day as that will be our only day in Xi'an'

If you arrive at Xi'an North, there are free shuttle bus to visit the Terracotta Warrior Museum every hour. There are ticket booths for 4 major sites in Lintong districts at Xi'an north station. If you have an arrival high speed train ticket on the same day and you have bought the ticket for the Terracotta museum, you can exchange the train ticket for a free shuttle bus pass. After arrival, store your luggage first at the train station, then go get the tickets for the Terracotta Warrior Museum, exchange your high-speed train ticket for a free shuttle bus pass, it works for 3 days. Last departure of the shuttle bus at train station is at 4pm, the last departure at the Terracotta Warrior Museum is at 7:30 pm. You can save a lot of time this way, if you go check in at hotel first, then you most likely won't have time for the Terracotta museum.

We are staying in Xining for 2 nights to help us acclimate to higher elevations as we prepare to take the sky train to Tibet. We would like to see the "Rainbow Mountains" Zhangye Danxia Geological Park Tour I read there is a $6 entry fee + $3 shuttle ticket. I also read there is no other ways to get to the park other than taking a taxi from Xining and having it wait for you in order to take you back. I read to expect to pay about $30 for the roundtrip. Does anyone know how accurate that is? I know that the park is a good drive from Xining.

Zhangye is too far for a taxi ride. Take the train, it's about 2 hours. Then get taxi driver at the train station to the Danxia Park, negotiate with the driver so he can wait for you and take you back to the train station after you are done, the whole trip should be around 120 rmb, then take the train back to Xining. Or take a bus into the city, then take the tour bus there, usually at bus stations.

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