Best time to visit Xi'an

China · East Asia

All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.

The year in Xi'an

Tap a month for its page

Sweet spot
Good
OK
Avoid
Busy

Go in Mar–Jun — these months score within a whisker of each other; 18C max, 4 rainy days. Sep is the next best.

Plan this trip

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Flights

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Where to stay

Things to do

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Things to do in Xi'an

Army of Terracotta Warriors and Horses This mighty army of terracotta warriors and horses, found in three vaults…
Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum Mausoleum of the First Emperor of China. You can visit the surrounding gardens and…
Big (Wild) Goose Pagoda Built by Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi (高宗李治) in 652 AD.
Great Mosque Uniquely built in a traditional Chinese architectural style during the Ming Dynasty…
Daming Palace National Heritage Park This is, first of all, a huge park with both green spaces and an enormous open square…
Xi'an City Wall The world's largest city wall, it has been restored and is 12 m high…
Tang Paradise A large (67 ha, 165 acres) theme park based on the royal gardens of the Tang Dynasty.

Tours and tickets in Xi'an

Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank

Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage (Xi'an), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.

Month by month

No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.

Month	Max °C	Rain days	Humidity	Sun h/day	Verdict	Why
Jan	6°	2d	63%	7.1h	avoid	bitter cold: 6C daily max
Feb	10°	2d	62%	7.5h	ok	10C max, 2 rainy days
Mar	18°	4d	57%	8.1h	sweet spot	18C max, 4 rainy days
Apr	24°	6d	54%	7.8h	sweet spot	24C max, 6 rainy days
May	28°	5d	55%	8.5h	sweet spot	28C max, 5 rainy days
Jun	32°	5d	57%	9.0h	sweet spot	32C max, 5 rainy days
Jul	34°	6d	64%	9.6h	avoid	extreme heat: 12 days over 35C
Aug	32°	6d	67%	9.3h	ok	32C max, 6 rainy days
Sep	26°	8d	73%	7.0h	good	26C max, 8 rainy days
Oct	19°	8d	76%	5.7h	good	19C max, 8 rainy days
Nov	13°	4d	70%	6.3h	ok	13C max, 4 rainy days
Dec	7°	1d	60%	7.3h	ok	7C max, 1 rainy day

Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.

Weather read at the centre, 26 km from the airport (XIY): ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.

A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.

How busy it gets

Busiest in July; quietest in January and February.

Then and now

Xi'an's March days now average 17.6°C, 4.2°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 9 of 12 months are clearly warmer.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1981–90	5.7°	8.0°	13.4°	20.3°	25.4°	28.9°	29.6°	28.6°	23.5°	18.5°	12.1°	6.9°
2017–26	5.8°	10.2°	17.6°	23.6°	27.9°	32.0°	33.7°	32.2°	26.0°	18.7°	13.3°	6.9°
Change	+0.2°	+2.3°	+4.2°	+3.3°	+2.5°	+3.1°	+4.1°	+3.6°	+2.5°	+0.2°	+1.2°	+0.0°

The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.

Getting there

How far Xi'an is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.

Before you go

Type A and C and I plugs at 220 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the Renminbi. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. Everything for China: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.

Being there

On arrival

Paying — Most payments are made by phone with Alipay or WeChat Pay: link a Visa, Mastercard or other foreign card to either app, then scan the shop's QR code. Many hotels and larger shops take foreign cards, but many places do not, so carry some yuan in case the apps fail you.
UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
Tipping — Not expected in most restaurants and hotels, or in taxis; bars and cafeterias in hotels, and some other restaurants and bars, may add a 10-15% service charge.

Getting around Xi'an

Apps — Rides: DiDi, Amap. Maps: Amap, Baidu Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: WeChat. Google and WhatsApp are blocked in mainland China, as are Facebook, YouTube and X; WeChat, Alipay and DiDi all work in English.

The old city is surrounded by a rectangular city wall. The Bell Tower (钟楼 Zhōnglóu) is in the dead center of the rectangle, and is considered the center of Xi'an. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Xi'an, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Help

Emergency — police 110 · ambulance 120 · fire 119. Traffic police are on 122.
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.

Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 7 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.

Sources (27)

Xi'an in pictures

Lintong Xian China Huaqing Pool 05 — i

CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Lintong Xian China Ministry of Railtransport Sanatorium Lintong 01 — i

CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, Xi'an, May, 2018 1 — i

Alexey Komarov, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What Xi'an is like

Xi'an (西安 Xī'ān, read as SEE-AHN) is a city in Shaanxi Province in China. The oldest surviving capital of ancient China, Xi'an is home to thousands of years of Chinese heritage and history. The city has a pleasant cosmopolitan flair to it and it is worth visiting for the famed Terracotta Warriors. More on Wikivoyage

Worth seeing: Beilin (or Stele) Museum (西安碑林博物馆; Xī'ān Bēilín Bówùguǎn), Sanxue St, Beilin District (碑林区三学街15号) (just inside the south city wall, near Wenchang Gate; about 800 m northeast of Yongningmen Metro Station on Line 2). More on Wikivoyage
Worth doing: Stroll round the Drum and Bell Tower area after dark, when they're brilliantly illuminated. Hui Muslim Quarter (Huimin Street (回民街 Huímínjiē)) (northwest of the Bell Tower). More on Wikivoyage
Getting in: Xi'an Xianyang International Airport (西安咸阳国际机场, XIY IATA), Dizhang Town, Weicheng District, Xianyang (咸阳市渭城区底张镇) (40 km northwest of the city center, in Xianyang). More on Wikivoyage
Staying safe: Like other Chinese cities, Xi'an is generally quite safe in terms of violent crimes. Watch out for pickpockets in crowds, on the bus, and during national holidays. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Xi'an, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.

Around Xi'an

Also in China

Nearby

Kind of place

Xi'an is in China, East Asia. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.

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