People plan whole days around the Terracotta Army and treat Xi'an's museums as a rainy-day backup. That is backwards. The Shaanxi History Museum is where the good stuff from all those tombs ended up, and it is one of the best collections in China. The catch is getting in, because the ticketing system is built for Chinese apps. It took me two attempts on my first visit. Here is what I learned, so you can get it right on the first one.

Why this museum matters

Xi'an was the capital of China for over a thousand years across thirteen dynasties, and Shaanxi province is stuffed with imperial tombs. A huge share of what archaeologists pulled out of the ground ended up here: Tang dynasty murals, Tang and Han gold and jade, a whole gallery of Tang tomb figurines with faces so alive you feel like you know them. If you liked the Terracotta Army, this is the place that gives it context, because most of the best finds from that era and region are displayed here, not at the pits.

Getting tickets as a foreigner

The museum is free, but the free quota is reserved through the museum's official WeChat account, days in advance. That works fine if you have a Chinese phone number and WeChat Pay, and badly if you do not. Two practical routes for foreign visitors:

• Ask your hotel front desk or a local tour operator to book the free slots for you with your passport details. This works more often than anything else.
• Buy a paid special exhibition ticket. The Treasures Hall ticket has historically cost around 30 yuan and could be bought with more flexibility, and the Tang Mural Hall ticket, around 270 yuan, includes a guided visit to the mural gallery that most regular visitors skip. Both get you into the main halls too.

The Tang Mural Hall is worth mentioning on its own. The murals from Princess Yongtai's tomb and others are displayed in low light with tight limits on photography, and they are the closest thing you will see to stepping into a Tang dynasty tomb without a shovel. If the free tickets are gone and you were going to pay anyway, this is the one to pay for.

Timing your visit

Go at opening. The halls get loud and shoulder-to-shoulder by mid-morning, especially during Chinese school holidays, and the small Tang figurine cases turn into a crush. Hours vary by season, and like most big Chinese museums there are weekly closure days, so confirm the schedule on the museum's official account or with your hotel before you go. Weekday mornings in the shoulder season are ideal.

What to actually look at

Without a guide, three things are worth your full attention. The Tang dynasty figurines: ladies playing polo, foreign merchants with deep-set eyes, grooms with Central Asian faces, all of it evidence of how cosmopolitan Chang'an was. The gold and silver work from Hejiacun, a hoard found buried in jars in a Xi'an neighborhood, still jaw-dropping a thousand years on. And the murals if you bought that ticket. Skip the crowd around the most famous cases and read the English labels on the quieter ones; the collection is deep enough that the underrated pieces are great too.

Planning around it

The museum sits near the Big Wild Goose Pagoda in the southern part of the city, so the two pair naturally in one day. Do the museum first while you are fresh, lunch nearby, then the pagoda area in the late afternoon when the light turns warm and the fountain show runs in the evening. If you are on a tight schedule and have to choose between a second Terracotta Army half-day and two hours here, take the museum. The army is one thing done at monumental scale. This is a thousand years of one region at close range, and in my opinion it is the more memorable of the two.

Originally published on 71Asia Tours blog.