Mabel Hotel Wenyi Road Xi'an

... you will miss out, and don't worry about what a lot of people tell you, I haven't gotten sick once off street food as many "experts" will tell you.

I also saw something I didn't think I would actually see, a Wal-Mart. I know it's a national chain of stores and all, but I hadn't seen one yet for a while and so it was strange. It still was like other Wal-Marts, everything under the sun available (including the cheapest ...

... a little more, taking in views from the Bell Tower and from the South Gate, as well as wandering through the Islamic quarter to give us a taste for the journey to come. This was one of the most enjoyable and relaxing parts of our trip to Xi'an and probably something we should have done to begin with, before launching into dusty bus journeys out to the tourist sites. We also went down to the Big Goose Pagoda and embarassingly led ...

... taken from the site that made the South Peak climb at Hua Shan famous world wide. If I was you after viewing my photos I'd move on to this site and read it as it is supposed to be read, with photos, comments, arrows etc. I only added it to the end of my blog so I'd have the information if I needed it. If you don't have much time YOU MUST read the story called A FOOLISH JOURNEY. Its about half way down the page and is ...

... and then to get our bags and take a taxi to the airport. We made it and they did in fact have our tickets, of course Denise looked at Frank and told him he was welcome for getting us to Shanghai. We landed late and had to take a taxi to the hostel. We were going to take their high speed train called the Maglev but it quit running at 9.32pm. We will take it on the way back though. It goes over 250mph ...

... 1271-1368), the drums were used to signal the running of time and on occasion were used as an alarm in emergency situations. The Drum Tower in Xian was initially built in 1380 during the reign of Emperor Hongwu of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and was renovated twice in 1699 and ...

... can compare to saying good bye to those back home so I won't bother even beginning to write about how much I miss my real family and friends. So much so that the question soon becomes; Do you stay and continue to teach in the school and city where you have made such friends or do you continue to live your dream and say good bye to them and move on and begin a new adventure and page in your book of dreams? I ...

... out well, The Great Digital Wall of China, censuring anything deemed inappropriate for Chinese eyes, is somewhat of a nuisance for updating my Dutch blog. So www.garybarnes.nl joins rank with such illustrious names at BBC news and Wikipedia. Obviously, if the Chinese would be able to learn such propostrous and alien concepts such as "hygiene" or "queue" from Wiki! I'm starting to see some storm clouds on the horizon of the Olympics, but I'll voice those ...

Xi'an is the ancient capital of China, it was a very close vote as to whether Beijing of Xi'an became the new capital of the Communist state...it is crammed full of historic sites, but we only had a few days. After a big breakfast on the 25th floor with great views over the city (if it wasn't for the smog !) we wandered off to see the ancient city walls, these were 14 klms long with just 2 entrances, but eventually 4 due to commerce. It was a bitterly cold day so ...

... we went into a hotel and asked them where our hotel was. We'd walked 3 big blocks past our hotel. We were going to be late for the dumpling dinner. We arrived back at the hotel at the exact time we were supposed to be leaving for the dinner. Eric was not impressed. Miguel and I rushed upstairs, showered and got ready for dinner. We practically ran to the dinner venue, and soon joined the rest of the crew. We weren't very late, and hadn't missed much at all ...

... my ears popped a few times and we seemed to climb rather steadily into increasinly mountainous territory. But the land flattened out again near Xi'an, and we got our first glimpse of flags fluttering over the city walls. Xi'an (pronounced /SHE-ann/) is one of the few cities in China to retain its defensive walls. They are massive, tracing a rectangular path around the city center with a circumference of approximately 13 miles. It's possible to rent a bike and ride the walls ...