A free street that puts on a show every night

Xi'an has no shortage of ancient things. What surprised me on my last trip was how much I enjoyed the newest one. Datang Everbright City, or Datang Buyecheng, is a pedestrian boulevard running south from the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, and every evening it turns into something between a theme park and a street festival.

There is no entrance fee. There is no gate. You just walk in and it happens around you.

What it actually looks like

The street is about 1.5 kilometres long and lined with Tang-style architecture, which in practice means heavy timber frames, upswept roofs and a lot of gold leaf. At night everything is lit: lanterns strung between buildings, illuminated statues, projections on the paving.

What makes it different from a generic commercial street is the performers. Along the route there are fixed stages and wandering characters in Tang costume. Poets declaiming verse. A woman in a flowing robe playing a pipa. Guards. Dancers. Most of it runs nightly and most of it is free to watch; you just stop and stand still for five minutes.

The walk, start to finish

Start at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, which is worth seeing in daylight first. Then walk south. The order matters less than the pace, so here is what I would not skip.

• The Kaiyuan Plaza section near the north end, where the biggest light installations are.
• The stretch of bronze statues showing Tang daily life. Good for photos, and quieter than the main stages.
• Whichever performance is drawing a crowd. If people are standing still, there is a reason.
• The southern end, where it thins out and you can actually breathe.

Give it two hours. Three if you stop for food, which you will, because the snack stalls are the real reason half the city comes here.

Should you wear the costume?

Yes, if it appeals at all. Half the women on the street are in rented Tang-style dresses, and renting one is easy, cheap by Western standards, and takes about twenty minutes including hair. There are shops all along the north end of the street. Men do it too, though in smaller numbers, usually in scholar or general outfits.

It sounds like a tourist trap. It is not, entirely. The locals take it seriously, the photography is genuinely good because everyone is dressed for it, and you will get far better pictures than standing around in a hoodie.

Practical notes

The street is busiest from about 7pm to 10pm and truly packed on weekends and public holidays. If you want photographs of the architecture without a thousand heads in them, come at 6pm before the lights come on and walk it once, then walk it again.

Take metro Line 3 or Line 4 to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda station, or Line 4 to Datang Furong Garden if you are starting from the south. Taxis after 9pm are a nightmare. Use the metro.

Food is street-food priced. Bring cashless payment, meaning Alipay or WeChat Pay linked to a foreign card, because almost nobody takes cash now.

Pair it with something quieter

This street sits right next to the Tang Paradise and the Shaanxi History Museum, so the daytime is easy to fill. My advice is to do the museum in the morning, eat an early dinner, then walk the boulevard as the lights come up. By the time you reach the southern end you will have had a full day and barely noticed it.

One honest caveat: it is a commercial street, and after two hours the sameness starts to show. That is fine. Leave before you get bored, not after.

Originally published on 71Asia Tours blog.