In front of Southern Gate

I went to the South Gate of City Wall at 3:00pm. I stayed at the southern side of the city, and books keep telling that Southern Gate is the best way to start. Moreover, even locals never wander near the train station except when they really need, and the the train station is at the Northern gate.

...and how high the wall is...

This wall is the best preserved and the widest wall in China. After renting a bicycle for 20RMB for 100 minutes, and 5 more RMB for every 30 minutes thereafter, I started to go to the west.

the starting point

Normally it takes 60 minutes to cycle around the wall, but I was not there to challenge any record. I stopped at every gate along the wall (it has 16 gates), chatting with people, asking them for taking my photos (I did not bring my tripod with me this trip), taking photos at every part of the city along the wall. Some parts of the city are modernized, some parts are preserved with an ancient look, naturally or artificially. Most parts are still old, poor, damaged, unpreserved, and most people are living in old apartments.

Symmetry

Construction in progress

Outside of the wall


At one corner


One part


Xi'an train station, looking from the wall


Another corner


Yet another corner of the wall

Cycling on top of the City Wall is an amazing experience. But if you are in a hurry, riding in high speed is uncomfortable. The road is not cemented but was tiled with bricks that make the surface rough. When I came back to the starting points, it was 6:00pm.

Air

When I first arrived at the train station, I saw a lot of fog. My friend told me that it was not fog but smoke, and dust. I hardly believed him, as I thought the weather was cold, it was easy to have fog.

2 days later, I knew he was right. Not only Xi’an but also all cities in China are covered by this compound of “smoke, dust and maybe fog” to produce something that covers the air. The city is heavily polluted. My 3 hours on top of the wall coated me a layer of dust even when I tried to focus with my camera, it focused to the layer of dust on the lens cover.