Xi'an is primarily known as the jumping-off point to see the Terracotta Army, but today I decided to walk around the city itself. Two of the main tourist attractions are the Bell Tower (in the foreground) and the Drum Tower (in the background).
My hostel is just on the other side of the Drum Tower. Also visible in this photo is that ubiquitous symbol of modern China: smog. The Starbucks I've gone to the past few days is on the other side of the Bell Tower. There's also a Starbucks behind me, of course.
Since I had just visited the Summer Palace and the Forbidden City it seemed a bit silly to pay to go inside. I did, however, pay to see something you can't see in Beijing.
Xi'an is one of the few cities in China which still has city walls. This is looking westward from the South Gate.
They were built in 1370 by the Ming Dynasty. They're about 40 feet high and at the base they're about 60 feet wide. You can rent bikes, pay a rickshaw driver to do the work for you, or even hop on a trolley to travel around the entire wall, about nine miles. The original walls, built during the Tang Dynasty hundreds of years earlier, encompassed an area seven times greater than the existing walls.
This is the view looking across the gate to the southern part of the city. They were setting up for some sort of event. I suppose my invitation got lost in the mail.
Friday night is dumpling night at my hostel. The staff takes great delight in watching us foreign tourists clumsily folding the dough. Afterwards we got to taste the results. They must have been OK because the staff ate some too.
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