Muslim Quarter food walk & Big Wild Goose Pagoda

The day

What this day feels like

Xi’an was the largest city on earth when the Silk Road poured through it, and its Muslim Quarter has been cooking for travellers ever since — a millennium of lamb smoke, hand-pulled noodles and pomegranate juice pressed to order. This day is built backwards from that: culture in the afternoon, appetite after dark.

Start with the Tang treasures of the Shaanxi History Museum and the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, where the monk Xuanzang stored the scriptures he carried back from India. Then, as the lanterns come on, walk the Quarter eating everything, finish in the courtyards of the Great Mosque — Chinese pavilions, Arabic scripture — and catch the pagoda’s musical fountain show on the way home.

Good to know

Before you go

• Come very hungry — the food walk covers 6–8 stops, all small portions
• The Great Mosque welcomes visitors outside prayer times; shoulders and knees covered
• The north-square fountain show runs most evenings at 21:00 — we confirm on the day
• Vegetarians eat well here too: tofu, naan, cold noodles, persimmon cakes