It was during my third visit to Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province in Northwest China and home to the world-famous Terracotta Warriors interred by the first emperor of China 2,200 years ago, that I finally began to feel the peculiar character of the city. It's like a confident, well-educated man.

This man's profound cultural background is obvious. He's home to China's first museum of a prehistoric excavation, Banpo Museum; he welcomed ancient intellectuals and calligraphers who came from around the country to live here, leaving numerous invaluable paintings and calligraphy works; in religion, he is also considered a holy place with a string of Buddhist temples, among them Guangren Temple, the only Tibetan Buddhist temple in Shaanxi Province, and Qinglong Temple, long regarded as the source for Japan's major sect of Shingon Buddhism.

And surrounding him are historical city walls, one of the largest and most complete ancient city walls in China, originally built in the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

Although Xi'an is possibly not a wealthy person, still he has a refined taste in everyday life. Using common grain, he and his people have invented dozens of mouthwatering snacks. Xi'an knows pretty well how to create enjoyment out of a simple life.

Visitors can see hundreds of ancient pillars adorned with calligraphy in Beilin Museum. Photos: Sun Shuangjie/GT and CFP

Take time to feel

For a tourist, to begin walking the ancient city walls is a good start. Stretching roughly 13 kilometers, the walls are well-suited for taking your time and relaxing a while.

But if you find it's a bit long and monotonous, you can rent a bike and take in a quick view of the city. Chinese tourist websites usually offer cheaper prices than on-site rentals.

Besides popular sights such as the Terracotta Warriors and Huaqing Pool - a royal hot springs retreat from the Tang Dynasty - which are hours-long rides from downtown, I recommend the Beilin Museum in the center of town.

Beilin literally means forest of steles, and here you can see hundreds of ancient pillars adorned with calligraphy from famous intellectuals, monks, officials and ancient emperors.

The museum's admission costs 75 yuan ($11.51) per person, and it's highly recommended to spend another 200 yuan on an English-language guide for you or for groups up to five people. A Chinese guide costs 100 yuan.

Even as a Chinese, I was totally surprised by the wisdom and beauty of the ancient engravings showcased here. For instance, you may find a carved painting of bamboo on a stele, but then the guide will tell you it's actually a poem, whose characters are shaped into bamboo leaves.

Outside Beilin Museum is a popular market known as Shuyuanmen Culture Street, which mainly trades in ink-wash paintings and calligraphy scrolls.

A few stores also sell oil paintings, some of which are created by local art academy students. The prices are not high, so that with 100 yuan you can bring back a couple of simple ink-wash paintings.

Mountains and forest

Huashan Mountain in Weinan city, west of Xi'an, has long been a popular tourist site. But if you don't want to travel too far and be submerged in a flood of people, several forest parks inside Xi'an are worth visiting.

Both Taiping Forest Park (pictured above) and Zhuque Forest Park lie amid the vast expanse of Qinling Mountains, which together with Huaihe River geographically divides China into two parts, northern and southern.

I went to Taiping Forest Park, which is closer to the downtown area. It took roughly 2 hours to reach the foot of the mountain, and arriving at the gate of the park takes an extra half-hour ride.

The stones and streams are major attractions, and tourists are often found dining on a big rock beside a stream. The park also has common leisure and recreational activities like water skiing and cable cars.

But it's a long journey to reach the higher part of the mountains, which are home to several beautiful waterfalls.

To make sure you have enough energy to finish the mountain hike, it's better to prepare food and water before the climb; there are few shops on the way up.

But at the foot of the mountains is a wide array of snack shacks and food shops where you can try some of the more uncommon Shaanxi dishes, like wheat fish, a boiled fish-shaped snack featuring a pleasant hot-and-sour flavor, and steamed minced pork (above), which is spiced and wrapped in steamed buns.

In recent years, some mountains in Xi'an have been developed to highlight cultural scenic areas as well.

One friend strongly recommended seeing an alfresco show named The Everlasting Sorrow, staged beside Lishan Mountain and Huaqing Pool.

The show is very popular, though, and unfortunately for me, was already sold out for the May Day holiday.

Maybe it's a hint for me that I will come back to the city again someday, to see and taste more of it. A place that has constantly been offering surprising experiences to visitors, Xi'an definitely is worth one more trip.