Section 1 — Take the Historical Rabbit Hole North From Xi’an
Most international travelers come to Xi’an to meet China’s First Emperor. Travel north to Hancheng, however, and you’ll meet the man whose great historical work helped later generations remember Qin Shi Huang — and centuries of Chinese history before him.
Xi’an is one of the best places in China to become infected with Chinese history.
😂
You see the Terracotta Warriors.
You meet:
秦始皇 — Qin Shi Huang
Then perhaps you start asking:
What happened before Qin?
🐇
That leads toward Zhou.
Then:
How do we actually know so many of these ancient stories?
🐇
And eventually one name becomes impossible to avoid:
司马迁 — Sīmǎ Qiān
Sima Qian
So Elaine and I went to his hometown:
韩城 — Hánchéng
Hancheng
in Shaanxi Province, north of Xi’an.
And Hancheng turned out to be exactly the kind of place ChinaTravelBUG loves.
We came with one historical reason.
We found several more.
🕰️ Where Are We in Chinese History?
Let’s put Sima Qian on our coat rack first:
ZHOU
c. 1046–256 BCE
↓
WARRING STATES
475–221 BCE
↓
QIN
221–206 BCE
📍 Qin Shi Huang
↓
HAN DYNASTY
206 BCE–220 CE
📍 SIMA QIAN — c. 145–c. 86 BCE
← WE ARE HERE
↓
THREE KINGDOMS
220–280 CE
So Sima Qian lived during the Western Han dynasty, roughly a century after Qin Shi Huang unified China.
And here’s the important connection:
Sima Qian wasn’t merely living through history. He was trying to write an enormous account of the history that came before him.
That makes Hancheng particularly special for what we’re trying to do with Deep China.
🍚 Western Handrail: “China’s Herodotus”?
Western readers sometimes encounter Sima Qian described as:
“China’s Herodotus.”
The comparison can be useful — but only as a doorway.
Herodotus is one of the foundational names in the Western tradition of historical writing.
Sima Qian occupies an enormously important place in the Chinese historiographical tradition.
But they lived in different societies, wrote differently and had different intellectual purposes.
So don’t think:
Sima Qian = Chinese version of Herodotus.
😂
Think instead:
If you want to understand how one of the world’s great civilizations learned to write and organize its own past, Sima Qian is one of the essential people to meet.
And Hancheng is where his story begins.
《史记》 — The Book That Makes Sima Qian So Important
Sima Qian’s great work is:
《史记》 — Shǐjì
Records of the Grand Historian
This isn’t simply:
“A history of the Han dynasty.”
Its ambition was much larger.
The Shiji ranges from China’s legendary antiquity through dynasties, rulers, states, wars and historical personalities to Sima Qian’s own age.
And instead of giving us only a chronological list of rulers, Sima Qian helped tell history through:
emperors,
generals,
statesmen,
thinkers,
families,
and individual human lives.
Sound familiar?
😝
Dad Suddenly Likes Sima Qian Even More 😂
Think about the way we’re now trying to help international readers understand Chinese history.
Timeline
↓
person
↓
story
↓
place
↓
artifact
↓
🐇 next question
Sima Qian obviously wasn’t running ChinaTravelBUG 2,000 years ago.
😂
But he understood something enormously powerful:
People make history memorable.
Qin Shi Huang isn’t merely:
“Qin ruler, 259–210 BCE.”
He’s a person inside a story.
So is Xiang Yu.
So is Liu Bang.
So are countless figures whose stories later generations encountered through historical writing.
And suddenly Dad has another question:
What kind of person devotes his life to writing a work this enormous?
🌶️
That question leads us into one of the most painful and extraordinary stories in Chinese historiography.
But before we get there…
Hancheng gives us another surprise.
Hancheng Is Not Just Sima Qian
When Elaine and I explored Hancheng, we also visited:
大禹庙 — Dà Yǔ Miào
a Temple of Da Yu / Yu the Great
And immediately another enormous historical rabbit hole opened.
Because Da Yu (大禹) belongs to a completely different part of China’s historical memory.
Much, much earlier.
🕰️ Dad, We’re Going Backward Again 😂
Sima Qian:
HAN
c. 2nd–1st century BCE
Da Yu?
Traditional Chinese chronology places him in the remote world associated with the beginnings of:
夏 — Xia
more than a millennium before the Shang world we explored at Anyang.
So within one Hancheng journey we suddenly jump:
HAN
↓
back through:
QIN
↓
ZHOU
↓
SHANG
↓
toward:
DA YU AND THE TRADITIONAL BEGINNINGS OF XIA
😳
Welcome to Deep China.
🍚 Western Readers: Meet China’s Great Flood-Control Hero
If you grew up with Western or Middle Eastern traditions, stories of catastrophic floods may already sound familiar.
Many civilizations preserved important flood narratives.
China has its own distinctive tradition centered on:
大禹治水 — Dà Yǔ zhì shuǐ
Yu the Great Controls the Floods
The traditional story isn’t that Yu simply defeated water with brute force.
His achievement became associated with managing and channeling floodwaters, working with the geography rather than merely trying to block everything.
The story became enormously important in Chinese cultural memory.
And Yu became associated with the establishment of:
the Xia dynasty — 夏
traditionally regarded as China’s first dynasty.
🌶️ But Was Da Yu a Historical Person?
Ah.
🐇
Now we’re back to one of our favorite Deep China lessons:
tradition ≠ archaeology ≠ automatically established history.
Yu the Great is deeply embedded in early Chinese textual and cultural traditions.
Archaeology has revealed increasingly complex societies in China during the broad period traditionally associated with early dynastic development.
But connecting particular archaeological discoveries directly to every detail of the traditional Yu narrative is another matter.
So when we visit a Da Yu temple, we’re not saying:
“Here is archaeological proof that Yu personally stood here.”
That’s not what the site means.
We’re asking something different:
Why did generations of Chinese people continue honoring Yu?
And that question leads toward ideas about:
flood control,
good government,
public responsibility,
and the origins of political order.
🔥
🐇 And Then Dad Asks: Where Is Da Yu’s Tomb?
Naturally.
😂
Once you’ve visited a temple, the next question is:
“Okay… where is he buried?”
There is a famous Dayu Mausoleum (大禹陵) tradition at Shaoxing in Zhejiang, associated for centuries with worship and commemoration of Yu.
Whether that represents a historically verifiable burial of an individual Yu is a different question entirely.
That’s another rabbit hole Dad hasn’t properly chased yet.
🐇
Saved.
For later.
And This Is Why Hancheng Is Such a Good Deep China Stop
We came because of:
Sima Qian
Then Hancheng gave us:
Da Yu
One man tried to preserve China’s past in writing.
The other belongs to some of China’s oldest traditions about how political civilization began.
And here’s the wonderful connection:
Sima Qian himself wrote about Yu and the ancient past.
💡
Suddenly the two historical ingredients in Hancheng aren’t completely separate.
The Shiji begins its enormous historical vision in the world of legendary sage rulers and early antiquity before carrying the story forward toward Sima Qian’s own time.
So in Hancheng:
the ancient stories
and:
the historian who helped preserve them
meet in the same journey.
🔥🔥🔥
And We Haven’t Even Reached Sima Qian’s Tomb Yet
That sits dramatically above the landscape near Hancheng.
And when Elaine and I climbed up to it, another surprise was waiting.
The tomb doesn’t simply tell us about:
HAN CHINA
It also contains a fascinating layer from:
YUAN CHINA
more than a thousand years later.
Why would the Mongol rulers of the Yuan dynasty honor a Han Chinese historian who had died centuries before?
😈
Now THAT is another piece of chilli.
And it takes us straight into:
history,
memory,
political legitimacy
and the question of why later dynasties cared so much about how they fitted into the Chinese historical tradition.
🐇🐇🐇
That’s where we’ll continue.
Section 2 — Sima Qian: The Historian Who Chose to Endure Humiliation So His History Could Survive
We came to Hancheng because of:
司马迁 — Sīmǎ Qiān
But before visiting his tomb, there’s something international travelers need to understand.
Sima Qian wasn’t simply:
“an important Han dynasty historian.”
His life contains one of the most extraordinary personal stories in Chinese intellectual history.
He inherited an unfinished mission from his father.
He traveled.
He served at the imperial court.
He attempted to write an enormous history of the Chinese world.
Then he offended one of China’s most powerful emperors.
The punishment was devastating.
And Sima Qian faced a choice:
die
or:
endure profound humiliation and finish his work.
He chose the work.
🌶️
That decision is part of the reason we’re still talking about him more than 2,000 years later.
🕰️ Where Are We?
Let’s keep our timeline visible:
QIN
221–206 BCE
↓
WESTERN HAN
206 BCE–9 CE
EMPEROR WU OF HAN
141–87 BCE
📍 SIMA QIAN
c. 145–c. 86 BCE
↓
Later Han
↓
THREE KINGDOMS
220–280 CE
This is the same broad Han world we’ve already encountered elsewhere in Deep China.
Remember Linfen?
🐇
Wei Qing (卫青).
Huo Qubing (霍去病).
The great campaigns against the Xiongnu.
Those stories belong to the reign of:
汉武帝 — Emperor Wu of Han
And guess whose court Sima Qian served?
The same emperor.
💡
Suddenly Linfen and Hancheng are talking to each other.
🍚 A Familiar Western Handrail: Imagine the Historian Standing Beside the Emperor
Western readers may know names such as:
Herodotus
or:
Thucydides
as foundational figures in traditions of historical writing.
But Sima Qian’s situation had another dimension.
He worked within the imperial court.
He wasn’t sitting centuries later in a university calmly reconstructing Han history.
😂
He lived inside the political world he was recording.
He knew the bureaucracy.
He knew imperial politics.
He lived during the reign of one of the most powerful emperors in Chinese history.
That gave him access.
But it also created danger.
Because sometimes:
the historian’s judgment and the emperor’s judgment don’t agree.
And that is exactly what happened.
Before Sima Qian, There Was His Father
The story of the Shiji doesn’t begin entirely with Sima Qian.
His father was:
司马谈 — Sīmǎ Tán
Sima Tan
Sima Tan served as 太史令 (tàishǐ lìng), an official position associated with calendrical, astronomical and historical responsibilities at the Han court.
He had an enormous ambition:
to produce a comprehensive historical work.
But he died before completing it.
According to the traditional account, Sima Tan entrusted his son with the responsibility of continuing that work.
So for Sima Qian, writing history wasn’t merely:
“This seems like an interesting career.”
It was also:
a father’s unfinished mission.
Now the story becomes personal.
Sima Qian Traveled Too
This is one reason Dad particularly likes him.
😝
Before becoming the historian we remember today, Sima Qian traveled widely through the Han empire.
He visited places connected with:
historical events,
ancient states,
famous people
and local traditions.
He didn’t rely only on documents.
He looked at geography.
He listened to stories.
He visited places.
Sound slightly familiar?
😂
No — Dad is not comparing himself with Sima Qian.
Let’s establish that before China Daily gets worried.
But there is a beautiful principle here:
Place can help us understand history.
Sima Qian knew that more than two thousand years ago.
And that’s exactly what Elaine and I keep discovering as we travel China.
Then Came the Li Ling Disaster
🌶️
The turning point in Sima Qian’s life involved a Han general:
李陵 — Lǐ Líng
During a campaign against the Xiongnu (匈奴), Li Ling’s forces became overwhelmed.
After fierce fighting and enormous losses, Li Ling eventually surrendered.
At the Han court, the surrender was viewed extremely negatively.
Emperor Wu was furious.
Sima Qian spoke in Li Ling’s defense.
Not necessarily because Li Ling had achieved victory.
He hadn’t.
But Sima Qian argued, in effect, that the general’s circumstances and earlier conduct deserved a fairer judgment.
That was dangerous.
🌶️ Never Make an Angry Emperor Angrier
Especially:
汉武帝 — Emperor Wu of Han
😂
Sima Qian’s defense of Li Ling was interpreted as an offense against the emperor.
He was imprisoned and sentenced to severe punishment.
The consequences would define the rest of his life.
And this is where Sima Qian’s story becomes difficult.
Sima Qian Was Castrated
There is no need to sanitize the history.
Sima Qian underwent:
宫刑 — gōngxíng
castration as a judicial punishment.
In the social world of Han China, this carried devastating humiliation.
For a man of Sima Qian’s status and values, the disgrace could be considered worse than death.
And that gives us the real question:
Why didn’t he choose death?
🍚 The Human Question Is Universal
You don’t need to know anything about Chinese history to understand the dilemma.
Imagine losing:
status,
dignity,
social standing,
and the life you expected to have.
Then imagine knowing that people around you may believe:
death would be more honorable than continuing to live with the humiliation.
What would make someone choose to endure it?
For Sima Qian, one answer was:
his unfinished work.
🌶️🌶️🌶️
He Hadn’t Finished the Shiji
Sima Qian believed the historical work he had inherited and developed was not complete.
If he died…
the work might die with him.
So he endured the punishment.
He survived.
And he continued writing.
That’s what makes the story so powerful.
Not:
“Sima Qian suffered, therefore he was heroic.”
But:
He believed completing his life’s work mattered enough to endure a level of humiliation that his society considered almost unbearable.
Whether we would make the same choice isn’t the point.
The question itself makes him human.
His Famous Letter Lets Us Hear His Own Pain
Sima Qian later wrote a famous letter usually known as:
《报任安书》 — Bào Rèn Ān Shū
Letter to Ren An
In it, he reflected on his punishment, humiliation and reasons for continuing to live.
This is another moment where ancient Chinese history stops being:
“Historian born c.145 BCE. Wrote Shiji.”
We encounter a man trying to explain why he had endured something he found profoundly shameful.
And why his work mattered enough to continue.
That letter deserves its own future Chinese History & Stories article.
🐇
Not today.
Dad has already added enough chilli.
😂
🔑 So What Exactly Was He Trying to Finish?
The answer was:
《史记》 — Shǐjì
Records of the Grand Historian
An enormous historical work of 130 chapters.
Its scope stretches from legendary antiquity and early rulers through the Shang, Zhou, Qin and into Sima Qian’s own Han world.
Think about what that means for our Deep China journey.
We’ve been visiting:
Taosi
↓
Shang / Anyang
↓
Zhou / Baoji
↓
Warring States / Handan and Linzi
↓
Qin / Xi’an
↓
Han
And Sima Qian was trying to place huge parts of this inherited past into an organized historical account.
😳
Sima Qian Didn’t Write History as One Long Timeline
This is particularly interesting for what we’re doing at ChinaTravelBUG.
The Shiji uses several different forms.
There are:
本纪 — Basic Annals
focused especially on major rulers;
表 — Tables
helping organize chronology;
书 — Treatises
dealing with important subjects and institutions;
世家 — Hereditary Houses
covering major ruling families and states;
and:
列传 — Biographies
telling the stories of individual people and groups.
Don’t memorize those.
😂
The important idea is:
Sima Qian understood that history needs more than dates.
Chronology matters.
Institutions matter.
States matter.
But:
people matter too.
💡 Dad Suddenly Sees the Connection
This is where Sima Qian becomes especially meaningful for our Deep China project.
We’ve been saying:
Timeline first.
Then attach:
people,
places,
objects,
stories.
Why?
Because a timeline alone is just:
1046 BCE → 221 BCE → 206 BCE…
😭
But put a person inside it:
Fu Hao.
King Wen.
Qin Shi Huang.
Huo Qubing.
Sima Qian.
Now the history starts living.
Sima Qian’s work did something vastly more sophisticated and historically important than our little travel project, obviously.
😂
But there is a principle here that Dad loves:
Human stories make historical time easier to remember.
And standing in Sima Qian’s hometown, that connection feels particularly appropriate.
Then We Climbed to His Tomb
[INSERT DAD / ELAINE PHOTOS AT 司马迁祠墓]
The Sima Qian Temple and Tomb (司马迁祠墓) sits dramatically on elevated ground near Hancheng.
You climb upward.
The landscape opens around you.
And eventually you reach the tomb associated with the historian whose work has carried so much of ancient China’s historical memory forward.
But then Dad noticed something unusual.
The tomb is round.
And the explanation takes us more than a thousand years forward again.
😂
🕰️ Suddenly We’re in the Yuan Dynasty
Sima Qian:
HAN
2nd–1st century BCE
His tomb’s later architectural story:
YUAN
1271–1368 CE
That’s a jump of well over a thousand years.
Why?
Because in 1265, during the rule of Kublai Khan, Sima Qian’s shrine and tomb were restored.
Historical material from Hancheng describes the tomb mound as having been rebuilt in a cylindrical brick form associated with the visual form of a Mongolian ger/yurt.
So the tomb itself contains layers of Chinese history.
Han historian.
↓
Yuan commemoration.
Now comes the really interesting question.
🐇
🌶️ Why Would a Mongol Emperor Honor a Han Chinese Historian?
This is where the tomb becomes much more than architecture.
The Yuan dynasty was established by Mongol rulers governing China.
Like other dynasties, it faced questions of:
political legitimacy,
historical succession,
and:
Where do we belong in the story of China?
Honoring respected figures from earlier Chinese history could help demonstrate that the new dynasty wasn’t simply standing outside Chinese civilization.
It could present itself as a legitimate successor within the longer political and cultural order.
Local historical interpretation in Hancheng explicitly connects Yuan-era honoring of Sima Qian and other major Han Chinese cultural figures with this effort to establish legitimacy within China’s dynastic tradition.
Now remember what we learned in Anyang:
天命 — Mandate of Heaven
💡💡💡
Here we go again.
A dynasty doesn’t only need to conquer territory.
It needs to explain why it belongs in the historical order.
🔥
The Tomb Itself Becomes a History Lesson
This is why I love places like Hancheng.
You think you’re visiting:
Sima Qian’s tomb.
Then:
Han
leads to:
Shiji
which leads backward through:
ancient Chinese history
while the tomb’s architecture leads forward to:
Yuan
which leads to:
Mongol rule
which leads back to:
political legitimacy
which reminds you of:
Mandate of Heaven.
🐇🐇🐇
At this point, the rabbit hole has eaten the rabbit.
😂
And That’s Why Sima Qian Is the Heart of Hancheng
Da Yu takes us toward China’s oldest traditions about rulership.
Hancheng Ancient City will show us a much later living historical landscape.
But Sima Qian sits beautifully between them.
He spent his life trying to organize China’s past.
Then later dynasties remembered him.
So when Elaine and I stood at his tomb, we weren’t merely visiting the burial place of a famous historian.
We were standing inside a much larger question:
How does China remember its past — and why does that memory matter to people who rule in the future?
🌶️🔥
That’s a very Deep China question.
And after this much heavy history…
Dad and Elaine needed to go somewhere we could simply walk around.
Fortunately, Hancheng has exactly that.
Section 3 — Hancheng Ancient City: A Smaller, Quieter Cousin of Pingyao
After Da Yu, Sima Qian, castration, the Shiji, Kublai Khan and questions of dynastic legitimacy…
Dad and Elaine needed a break.
😂
Fortunately, Hancheng gives you another completely different experience:
韩城古城 — Hánchéng Gǔchéng
Hancheng Ancient City
And this is one of the things I particularly liked about Hancheng.
You don’t have to spend the entire visit thinking about famous historical figures.
Sometimes you can simply:
walk,
look,
eat,
wander into an old courtyard,
and enjoy being somewhere that still feels connected with its historical urban landscape.
🍚 Our First Impression: A Smaller Version of Pingyao?
If you’ve traveled through Shanxi, you may already know:
平遥古城 — Pingyao Ancient City
Pingyao is one of China’s best-known preserved historic cities and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Elaine and I have been there too.
So when we walked around Hancheng Ancient City, a thought naturally occurred to me:
This feels a little like a smaller, quieter cousin of Pingyao.
That’s a personal travel comparison, not a claim that the two cities have the same history or level of preservation.
They don’t.
Pingyao is famous for its exceptionally complete Ming-Qing urban form, city walls and its important role in China’s commercial and banking history.
Hancheng has its own historical development.
But for an international traveler trying to imagine the experience, the comparison is useful.
If you enjoyed wandering Pingyao’s old streets but wished for somewhere smaller and less internationally famous…
Hancheng may surprise you.
An Ancient City That Grew Through Many Dynasties
Hancheng has a very long history, but much of the architectural character visitors encounter in the old city reflects later imperial China, particularly buildings and streets developed through the Ming and Qing periods.
And this creates a lovely contrast with the rest of our Hancheng journey.
Think about the timeline:
DA YU
remote antiquity / traditional Xia-associated world
↓
SIMA QIAN
Western Han
c. 145–c. 86 BCE
↓
YUAN
Kublai Khan-era restoration of Sima Qian’s shrine and tomb
↓
MING & QING
much of the historic urban fabric we encounter in Hancheng Ancient City
↓
TODAY
Dad and Elaine wandering around with cameras. 😂
One destination.
Different layers.
Again.
🕰️ This Is Another Way to Understand Historical Time
Timelines are useful.
Museums are useful.
But sometimes architecture gives your brain another kind of historical anchor.
At Yinxu, we’re looking at archaeological remains more than three thousand years old.
At Hancheng Ancient City, we’re walking through a much later urban environment.
You don’t need Dad standing beside you saying:
“Please note that this building is approximately X centuries later than Fu Hao.”
😭
You can feel that these are different historical worlds.
That’s another reason travel helps the timeline stick.
Different periods start looking different.
Don’t Just Look Up — Look at the Streets
[INSERT DAD/ELAINE HANCHENG ANCIENT CITY PHOTOS]
One mistake we sometimes make in historical cities is searching only for:
THE famous temple
or:
THE famous building
or:
THE thing Google says we must photograph.
Hancheng is better enjoyed more slowly.
Look at:
street patterns,
courtyard entrances,
rooflines,
temples,
shops,
and the way contemporary life fits inside an older urban setting.
Some buildings are restored.
Some uses have changed.
Modern life obviously continues around them.
That’s fine.
Deep China isn’t looking for a frozen movie set.
We’re interested in how historical places continue existing in the present.
Hancheng Gives the Brain Some Breathing Space 😂
This matters more than it sounds.
Imagine our itinerary if Dad had his way:
Da Yu
↓
early civilization
↓
Sima Qian
↓
Li Ling affair
↓
castration
↓
Shiji
↓
Yuan legitimacy
↓
Mandate of Heaven
↓
NEXT HISTORICAL LECTURE
😭😭😭
No.
Walk around Hancheng.
Get something to eat.
Watch people.
Take photographs.
Look into shops.
Let Elaine recover.
😂
Deep China should make you curious, not exhausted.
🐇 Unfortunately, Old Cities Also Have Rabbit Holes
Dad cannot promise complete safety.
😂
Because once you start looking carefully at Hancheng’s old city, questions appear again.
Why are there so many historic temples and traditional buildings here?
What did an important county-level city look like during imperial China?
How were streets organized?
Who lived in those courtyards?
What did local elites do?
How did ordinary families experience the great dynasties we’ve been talking about?
That’s another useful shift.
Chinese history isn’t only:
EMPERORS.
It is also:
cities,
families,
markets,
temples,
schools,
local officials,
and ordinary people.
The ancient city helps bring that level of history back into the journey.
And This Is Why the Pingyao Comparison Is Useful — But Limited
Pingyao may be the easier reference point for international travelers.
It’s famous.
It’s UNESCO-listed.
It’s already on many Shanxi itineraries.
Hancheng isn’t trying to replace it.
If this were your first historical-city experience in China and you had to choose purely on fame and completeness, Pingyao would understandably attract more attention.
But that’s not really our question.
Our question is:
If you’re already following the historical rabbit holes north from Xi’an, is Hancheng worth staying for rather than visiting Sima Qian’s tomb and immediately leaving?
For us:
Yes.
Because the old city gives Hancheng texture.
Sima Qian gives you the great historical figure.
Da Yu gives you cultural memory.
The ancient city gives you:
a place to actually spend time.
🌶️ And Hancheng Has One More Historical Trick
There’s something beautiful about combining the ancient city with Sima Qian.
Sima Qian wrote about:
kings,
empires,
wars,
great statesmen,
and enormous political change.
But civilizations aren’t made only from headline events.
They’re also made from the places where generations of people:
live,
trade,
worship,
raise families,
and remember the past.**
Walking through Hancheng’s old streets after visiting Sima Qian’s tomb quietly reminds us of that.
History happens at two levels:
the people whose names enter the history books
and:
the countless people whose names usually don’t.
🔥
That’s another useful key for understanding China.
Three Different Hanchengs in One Journey
By this point, Hancheng has given us three very different experiences.
1. DA YU TEMPLE — 大禹庙
China’s remote cultural memory.
Flood control.
Ideas about good rulership.
The traditional beginnings of Xia.
🐇 How much is tradition and how much can archaeology establish?
↓
2. SIMA QIAN TEMPLE & TOMB — 司马迁祠墓
Western Han.
The Shiji.
How China recorded its past.
A historian who endured enormous personal humiliation to complete his work.
Then a Yuan layer:
Why did later rulers continue honoring him?
↓
3. HANCHENG ANCIENT CITY — 韩城古城
Later imperial urban China.
Streets.
Temples.
Architecture.
Everyday life.
And somewhere to let your brain cool down after Dad explains the Mandate of Heaven again.
😂
That’s a surprisingly rich historical journey for a place most international travelers have never considered adding after Xi’an.
🐞 Sting Check
You came to Hancheng because:
“Sima Qian was born there.”
Now you’ve encountered:
Da Yu.
Xia traditions.
Sima Tan.
Sima Qian.
Emperor Wu.
Li Ling.
the Shiji.
Yuan political legitimacy.
and a well-preserved ancient city.
And perhaps you’re now thinking:
“Wait… Sima Qian wrote about Da Yu too?”
😬
Yes.
🐇
The ingredients have connected again.
You’ve been stung.
But Now We Need to Get Practical
Hancheng has done enough historical damage for one article.
😂
The final question is:
How do I actually visit from Xi’an?
And this is particularly important because Hancheng is exactly the kind of Deep China destination international travelers may find fascinating once they know it exists, but may not immediately know how to organize.
So in our final section we’ll cover:
Xi’an → Hancheng
↓
train / road options
↓
journey time and approximate costs
↓
how many nights
↓
Hancheng Ancient City
↓
Sima Qian Temple & Tomb
↓
Da Yu Temple
↓
how to get around
↓
and whether Hancheng should be:
a day trip, an overnight stop — or a proper two-day historical rabbit hole.
Spoiler:
Dad votes for the rabbit hole.
😂🐇
Section 4 — How to Go: Xi’an → Hancheng — And Why the Slow Train Is Part of the Experience
After Da Yu, Sima Qian, the Shiji, a Yuan-era tomb and Hancheng Ancient City, ChinaTravelBUG owes you the practical answer:
Okay Dad. How do I actually get to Hancheng? 😂
First, one important thing to understand:
There is NO high-speed rail from Xi’an to Hancheng.
Don’t search for a sleek 300 km/h G-train from Xi’an North.
You won’t find one.
Hancheng is still reached by conventional/intercity rail on the existing railway, not China’s true high-speed rail network.
And actually?
Elaine and I rather enjoyed that. 😝
Because after racing around China on high-speed trains, taking an old-fashioned “green train” (绿皮火车) gave us a completely different railway experience.
🚂 The “Green Train” Experience
If you’ve traveled China mostly on high-speed rail, you already know the modern experience:
huge station
↓
sleek train
↓
300 km/h
↓
another huge station
😂
The traditional 绿皮火车 — lǜpí huǒchē, literally “green-skin train,” belongs to another era of Chinese railway travel.
The trains are slower.
The stations can feel more old-school.
You see the countryside differently.
And the experience gives you a glimpse of the railway system generations of Chinese travelers knew long before today’s high-speed network transformed domestic travel.
For Dad and Elaine:
the journey itself became part of the trip.
🍚 A Different Side of Modern China
International travelers often arrive in China amazed by the high-speed railway.
And they should be.
But high-speed rail isn’t the whole Chinese railway story.
Millions of journeys across China have historically depended on conventional trains connecting smaller cities and towns.
So going to Hancheng gives you another little window into China:
Not everything is Beijing–Shanghai at 350 km/h.
😂
And honestly, for a short historical journey like this, there’s something rather enjoyable about slowing down.
You’re heading toward the hometown of a historian born more than 2,000 years ago.
Perhaps arriving slightly more slowly isn’t such a terrible thing.
🚆 Xi’an → Hancheng: Your Rail Options
Current schedules show several types of direct services from:
西安站 — Xi’an Railway Station
to:
韩城站 — Hancheng Railway Station
The important point is:
these are NOT high-speed rail services.
Current direct options include faster C-series intercity trains on the conventional route as well as slower traditional trains.
For example, current schedules show C-series services taking approximately:
2 hours 15–30 minutes
with second-class fares around:
RMB 55–58
and first class around:
RMB 87.
There are also traditional K-series trains taking roughly:
3+ hours
with hard-seat fares around:
RMB 32.50.
And then there’s the truly slow option.
😂
The 7001 local train currently takes around:
5 hours 47 minutes
from Xi’an to Hancheng, with a hard-seat fare around:
RMB 30.50.
That is definitely not high-speed rail.
That is:
Dad, Elaine… settle in. We have time. 😂
Schedules can change, so always check your actual travel date before booking.
⚠️ Don’t Let the Letter “C” Confuse You
This is worth explaining because international travelers can easily misunderstand Chinese train classifications.
You may see a train such as:
C180
and assume:
C = high-speed train.
Not necessarily.
The C-series service to Hancheng is a faster intercity passenger service, but Hancheng itself is not connected to Xi’an by a dedicated high-speed railway.
So for CTB purposes, we’ll keep the language simple:
Xi’an → Hancheng: conventional/intercity railway, NOT high-speed rail.
That’s the distinction travelers actually need.
🚉 And Check Your Xi’an Station
Another important detail:
The direct trains we’re discussing leave from:
西安站 — Xi’an Railway Station
not:
西安北站 — Xi’an North Railway Station
Xi’an North is the giant high-speed station many international travelers use for routes such as Beijing, Luoyang and other major high-speed destinations.
But Hancheng is different.
So check the Chinese station name on your ticket carefully.
西安 ≠ 西安北
One little 北 can make a very big difference when your train is leaving.
😂
Our Experience: Don’t Treat the Slower Train as a Disadvantage
This is where I would encourage international travelers to change their mindset.
If you’re comparing:
Xi’an → Hancheng
with:
Xi’an → Luoyang by high-speed rail
then yes, Hancheng looks slower.
But we’re not racing.
We’re going into Deep China.
Elaine and I took the ordinary train.
We watched the journey.
We experienced another side of Chinese rail travel.
And we arrived somewhere that most international travelers around Xi’an never consider visiting.
The train became part of the story.
That’s something you don’t always get when every journey is optimized down to the fastest possible minute.
How Long Should You Stay?
Because the railway journey takes longer than a quick high-speed hop, I would not recommend treating Hancheng as a day trip from Xi’an.
Technically possible with certain schedules?
Perhaps.
Worth doing?
Not to us.
You’d spend too much of your day watching the clock.
Instead:
Stay 2 nights.
That gives Hancheng room to breathe.
Day 1 — Xi’an → Hancheng + Ancient City
Take a morning train from:
西安站
to:
韩城站
Arrive around midday depending on your chosen service.
Check into your hotel.
Then spend the afternoon exploring:
韩城古城 — Hancheng Ancient City
Walk.
Eat.
Photograph.
Explore the streets.
Don’t begin your first afternoon with a three-hour lecture on Sima Qian.
😂
To Elaine and me, the old city felt like a smaller, quieter cousin of Pingyao.
Enjoy it that way.
Day 2 — The Historical Rabbit-Hole Day
Now bring out the chilli.
🌶️
Your major destination:
司马迁祠墓
Sima Qian Temple and Tomb
Give this proper time.
You’re not merely going to photograph a grave.
By now you know:
Sima Qian
↓
his father Sima Tan
↓
Emperor Wu
↓
Li Ling
↓
his punishment
↓
the Shiji
↓
Yuan restoration
↓
political legitimacy
🐇
The site means much more when you arrive with those connections already in your head.
🚕 Getting to Sima Qian’s Tomb
The Sima Qian Temple and Tomb is outside Hancheng’s main urban center in the Zhichuan (芝川) area.
For international travelers, I’d keep the transport simple:
DiDi / taxi / pre-arranged car
Save:
司马迁祠景区
and:
司马迁祠墓
on your phone.
Because you’re traveling beyond China’s main international tourism circuit, having Chinese destination names saved becomes especially useful.
Then Follow Dad to Da Yu 😂
If time and energy allow, continue to:
大禹庙 — Da Yu Temple
Now your timeline jumps dramatically backward.
Sima Qian
→ Han
↓
Da Yu
→ China’s remote traditions surrounding early rulership, flood control and Xia.
And remember:
we’re visiting a later temple commemorating Da Yu.
We’re not claiming archaeological proof that Yu personally lived or was buried here.
That distinction is part of learning how to approach China’s earliest history.
🚗 Consider a Driver for Day 2
This is one of those destinations where convenience may be worth paying for.
The sites aren’t all concentrated inside Hancheng Ancient City.
So for a couple, family or small group, a car/driver for the day can make sense:
Hotel
↓
Sima Qian Temple & Tomb
↓
Da Yu Temple
↓
return to Hancheng
That lets you spend the day thinking about Chinese history instead of:
“Dad, where is the bus stop?”
😂
Day 3 — One Last Walk, Then the Train Back
Have breakfast.
Walk around the old city again if you enjoyed it.
Then return to:
韩城站 — Hancheng Railway Station
for the conventional railway journey back toward Xi’an.
Current return services also include C-series and conventional trains; schedules vary by date, so check the latest timetable when planning.
And don’t complain that the train isn’t doing 300 km/h.
😂
You’ve just spent two days learning about:
Da Yu
Sima Qian
Han China
Yuan China
and an ancient city.
You can survive another couple of hours looking out the window.
Who Should Take This Journey?
Hancheng isn’t for every first-time visitor.
If you have ten days in China and haven’t seen the Great Wall or Terracotta Warriors…
please do those first.
😂
But consider Hancheng if:
- you have several days around Xi’an;
- you’ve visited China before;
- Chinese history fascinates you;
- Sima Qian has started meaning something to you;
- you enjoy well-preserved old towns;
- you want to experience a city outside the standard international circuit;
- or you’re happy to exchange a 300 km/h train for a slower journey into a much deeper rabbit hole.
Then Hancheng becomes very attractive.
🐞 Final Sting Check
You left Xi’an thinking:
“We’re taking an ordinary train to visit Sima Qian.”
Two days later, you’ve encountered:
Da Yu
↓
China’s earliest flood-control traditions
↓
Sima Qian
↓
the Shiji
↓
Emperor Wu
↓
Yuan political legitimacy
↓
an ancient city
and you’ve experienced China’s railway system at a rather more leisurely speed.
😂
And now you may be asking:
“Where exactly is Da Yu supposed to be buried?”
😬
There it is.
🐇
Another rabbit hole.
Dad hasn’t properly chased that one yet either.
Maybe one day.
ChinaTravelBUG’s Take
Hancheng is one of my favorite kinds of Deep China destination.
It’s close to Xi’an.
But it feels far away from the standard international China itinerary.
And even the journey there is different.
No high-speed rail.
Just take the train.
Slow down.
Watch China outside the window.
Arrive in an old city.
Visit the hometown of one of China’s greatest historians.
Climb to his tomb.
Discover why a Yuan emperor honored a Han scholar more than a thousand years later.
Then find yourself standing inside a temple dedicated to Da Yu and wondering how far back Chinese historical memory really goes.
That’s a lot of rabbit holes from one ordinary train ride.
And perhaps that’s exactly the point.
Deep China doesn’t always require going farther.
Sometimes it simply requires:
slowing down enough to notice what’s there.
🐇🐞
See China. Understand It Better.
