Run-time: Most of the buses in Xian start to run around 06:00 to 06:30 and stop between 19:00 and 23:00. The night buses are in operation from 23:30 to about 05:30 of the next morning.
Bus Route: There are over 200 bus lines running daily in Xian currently, including the airport shuttles, tourism routes and night lines. More than 95% of them are named with Arabic numbers, and the left are either named with the operation areas like Er Huan Bus No. 1 running on the 2nd Ring Road and the Education Special Line Running among the major universities, or with the departure bus stop like Wulong Special Line departing from the Wu Long International Automobile City and the Sheng Tang Zhi Lü departing from the Tang Paradise.
Bus Stops: Almost all of the bus stops were given the names from their nearby symbolic buildings or architectures, roads especially crossroads, scenic spots, hotels, restaurants, hospitals, schools and so on. However, there may be several bus stops set around the same building or road. Take the well-known Bell Tower for example, there are altogether four stops distributed at its north, south, east and west with the same name Bell Tower Bus Stop.
Bus Ticket: Xian bus ticket is mainly divided into flat fare that is CNY 1 or CNY 2 (air-conditioned) per person for the whole way, and fare charged by distance that is CNY 0.5 per person for the first 4 stops and additional CNY 0.5 every 4 stops for the latter way. Most of the buses are paid by cash; only 96 among the over 200 bus routes can be paid by IC card (Chang'an Tong Card), through which passengers can enjoy 50% discount.
Tips:
The bus IC Card can be got by paying CNY 50 or CNY 30 (containing a deposit of CNY 18 per card) at bus companies of Xian, the branches of the Xian City Commercial Bank and the China Construction Bank. Anyone can apply for the card without any document, no matter Xian citizens or visitors in Xian. The card can be returned at the Card Service Center in the west zone of the 6th company at the Xian Bus Company if you won't use it, but it must be kept intact.
Foreigners in Xian are advised to remember the bus stops in Chinese, since only a few buses report the stops in both Chinese and English.
Passengers should get on the buses from the front door and get off from the back door. Once on the bus, they should move to the back door in advance of the arrival stop in order to get off successfully, since it is always crowded in the buses in Xian.
