Practical Information for visiting Shannxi

Coverage for mobile networks is excellent in Xian and across the populated plain, with 5G in the city, and good along the main roads elsewhere.

The internet is filtered as across China — most non-Chinese search, social media, messaging and mapping is blocked. Install a VPN before arriving and expect variable performance.

Payment by phone dominates: Alipay and WeChat Pay are used for everything including street stalls, both accept foreign cards now, and setting one up before arrival avoids real difficulty.

Wi-Fi is widespread and usually needs a Chinese phone number to register, which is an argument for a local SIM.

Signal is patchy in the Qinling mountains and on Huashan’s upper routes.

Shaanxi is safe and crime against visitors is uncommon. The issues are scams, pollution and one very exposed mountain.

• Huashan’s plank walk is a metre-wide boardwalk bolted to a vertical cliff with a several-hundred-metre drop. Harnesses are provided and should be clipped at all times. People have died there, mostly through not using the equipment properly.
• 
  
• The fake Terracotta Army scam: unofficial buses and touts at Xian station take visitors to a lesser waxwork or replica site instead. Use the official public bus from the east square or a reputable tour.
• 
  
• Winter air pollution in Xian can reach levels that matter for asthma and heart conditions.
• 
  
• Pickpocketing in the Muslim quarter crowds and at the station.
• 
  
• Summer heat at the exposed archaeological sites.
• 
  
• Dust storms in spring in the north.

Xian has good hospitals including several with international departments; smaller cities are adequate, and the loess north has limited facilities. Payment upfront is normal.

Vaccinations: routine cover plus hepatitis A and typhoid; rabies for longer stays. There is no malaria in Shaanxi.

Air quality is the region’s distinctive health issue in winter, when the basin traps pollution from heating across the plain. Masks are widely worn and readings are published hourly.

Heat and sun at the Terracotta Army and the tomb sites in summer, where shade is minimal.

Stomach upsets: the street food is generally safe at busy stalls with high turnover; drink bottled or boiled water.

Huashan: the physical demands are real, and the cable cars are the sensible option for most people.

No flash photography in the terracotta pits, and no touching anything anywhere. Drones are prohibited over the archaeological sites.

In the Muslim quarter: this is a halal neighbourhood and a residential one. Do not bring alcohol or pork into the mosque area, dress modestly near the Great Mosque, and ask before photographing people.

Politics — Tibet, Xinjiang, Taiwan — is not a topic to raise.

Photography: not of police, military or government buildings.

At the table: chopsticks never upright in rice, the host orders, and toasts are frequent.

Tipping is not customary.

Queueing at the sites is competitive; hold your place.

Emergency numbers: 110 for police, 120 for ambulance, 119 for fire. English is unlikely — carry your hotel’s address in Chinese characters and ask staff to call if you can.

Medical. Xian’s major hospitals have foreign patient departments; payment upfront and claim on insurance afterwards is the norm.

On Huashan: stewards are stationed along the exposed sections, and the plank walk closes in wind, rain or ice. Do not argue with a closure.

Air quality alerts are issued in winter and are worth heeding if you have a respiratory condition.

Have a VPN and a payment app working before you arrive — not being able to pay or summon a taxi is the most common practical problem foreign visitors have in China.

A handful of countries maintain consulates in Xian.