Shannxi Events

The Shaanxi calendar is the Chinese festival year, staged against fourteen centuries of imperial architecture.

Lantern Festival on the city wall — fifteenth day of the first lunar month

Xian’s Lantern Festival is among the best in China, and the setting is what makes it: the entire fourteen-kilometre circuit of the Ming city wall, along with the South Gate and the moat, is hung with thousands of illuminated lanterns and large sculptural installations, many of them built around the zodiac animal of the year or on Tang dynasty themes. It runs for several weeks around Chinese New Year, the wall is open late into the night, and the whole city walks it. Crowds are very large and tickets are timed.

Chinese New Year — late January or February

Temple fairs at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and the Great Mosque quarter, qinqiang opera performances, and a fortnight in which most of the country is travelling.

Waist drum performances — through the year, Ansai

The loess north’s drum dance, performed by large troupes at festivals and particularly around New Year, with hundreds of drummers in white headscarves moving in formation.

Temple fairs and Qinqiang in the parks — year round

Xian’s parks host amateur opera every weekend: groups of retired people set up with a two-stringed fiddle and clappers and sing qinqiang at full volume for hours, and anyone may join. The Revolution Park and the area inside the South Gate are the usual spots. It is free, entirely unstaged, and a better introduction to the form than a ticketed performance.

Qingming — early April

Grave-sweeping, and at Huangling a large state ceremony at the tomb of the Yellow Emperor, the legendary ancestor of the Chinese people.