A bicycle built for two

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  Xi'an, China
Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Xi'an is one of the few cities in China that has restored and rebuilt its city wall.  It is possible to walk around the entire wall (it's 14km).  Xi'an used to be the capital and this wall was the smallest inner wall.  The outer wall enclosed an area almost eight times larger.  It was a big city. 

I didn't think I was going to be able to persuade Erin to walk all the way around the wall.  But there was another option.  You could rent a bicycle to ride around the top of the wall.  While the whole thing was rather costly, it was definitely fun. 

Getting up on the wall also meant we could walk around the section of the south gate that had been decorated for New Years.  They had a bunch of floats set up with various peoples and animals.  Of course, the Olympics was also a theme this year

We're cool

.  We had 100 minutes to get around the wall.  That is actually a pretty fast pace.  But I wanted to stop a lot to peer over the wall and look at the various towers that had been rebuilt.  There is a moat around the city as well and a park-like strip in between.  On the outside you can see the skyscrapers everywhere.  It almost looks like the wall is defending against modern development.  We had a tandem bike (built for two) and it was pretty fun to zoom along the top of the wall and stop to investigate the various towers and look down into the city below.  They had lanterns and various standards along the length of the wall, and there was snow on some of the buildings.  They had various English signs, and a couple mysterios weapons hanging around.  There were four main gates on each side and a host of smaller gates.  The watch towers were spaced so that archers could shoot along the wall.  It was an impressive feat of engineering.  We made it around in 90 minutes.

We then wandered down to the decorations and around the South Gate.  They had a draw bridge here and it was the main entrance to the city.  They pulled it up at curfew and if people got stuck outside with their animals they would have to stay in a nearby town for the night. 

Along the wall we came upon a street selling calligraphy banners for the New Year.  A bunch of artists were creating red scrolls with gold ink right in front of a watching audience.  It was fun to watch and very colorful with all the scrolls and paintings everywhere.  A fun day.

~Travis

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

street market on bikes	drum tower	bell tower	floats on the wall
the olympic crew	Xi'an roof-tops	on the wall	old men bike on the wall
the bicycle built for two	standards along the wall	down the ramp	decorations for New Years
guard towers	the attack of the skyscrapers	New Years decorations	the year of the rat
lots of New Years calligraphy	a street market	creating with an audience

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