Xi'an Travel Forum

I was planning on visiting Xi'an for 2 days but decided to cut it down to one. Will this be possible? All I want to see is the terracotta warriors, the city walls, Wild Goose pagodas, and the Bell and Drum Towers. I'm thinking of arriving in Xi'an in the morning from Beijing, and leaving at night on an overnight train to Shanghai. Is this possible?

no, unless your visit are just quick photo stops. Just the Terracotta site will be a 1/2 day at least. Also the Bell and Drum towers lite up at night, the surrounding area is very nice for a dinner and evening walk. Likewise, I like to go up to the city wall at sunrise to watch all the folks there exercising or just "walking" their birds (join them you will have fun)!

Many missed the Museum in the city, worth going through it. As Xi'an is the center of China in the ancient days there are lots to see if you want to learn the history of China.

Stay a night, you will enjoy it much more than rushing through. Recommend you do the Terracotta warriors, goose pagoda and bell/drum towers on day one, day 2 up the city wall then the museum before catching train out.

Enjoy!

You cld do it, it would be a hell of a rush though.

It's possible, you can see these places. But you can just visit the terracotta army, and pass by other spots. The history musuem is a place nobody should miss.

Xi'an is a place that is worth spending some time in. You could complete your itinerary but you'd really not see anything, let alone appreciate it. As a previous poster pointed out, the Warriors will take half a day and they alone deserve to be given more time. I would take one day to do with city walls, the Wild Goose pagodas and the Bell and Drum Towers, stay the night and see the city at night, and then take another day to see the Warriors. You will not regret it, whereas if you try and do it all in one day, you might as well not bother trying to see anything at all, for all you will see. If you understand my English!! Of all the places we visited in China last year, we had four nights in Xi'an and we could have done with more.

Be warned that it's notoriously difficult to get onward tickets to Shanghai, it would be impossible if you try to do that on the day of travel itself. The only train that you could get tickets for would be T137/T140 and it leaves at 1953.
I would also agree that it's too rushed to do what you want to see in 1 day flat.