City Wall: the 13.7km circuit

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

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.

Shănxi History Museum

Square in the back of Big Wild Goose Pagoda

I drew a plan for me this day. As I had a map bought yesterday at the museum, I felt life easier, and it really was. Intending to visit 3 places in the morning, but finally I only had enough time to visit 2. I spent lots of time at the museum, and just have less than enough for the Pagoda near by. Both my batteries drained out and I couldn’t take a photo with Xuánzàng in front of the gate.

Walking to the Pagoda from the Museum took me 15 minutes, as on the way, I helped an old woman cross the street, and she also went to the pagoda. We didn't talk much (as we didn't understand each other's language), but I knew she was from Beijing, and was visiting Xi'an.

The main tower

I really impressed by the pagoda. The Pagoda lies on a really big square. Entering the square from the back (of the pagoda), I saw many new shops, restaurants with an ancient construction. Walking along the pathway to the Main Gate, next to the Statue "Gongsun flying sword", I saw many old couples dancing happily following a soft, low and slow music coming from nowhere. Suddenly, I felt very happy, all my troubles seemed so far away (c.f. Yesterday).

Gongsun Flying Sword

in front of one of these shops. what does it mean?
they should have placed a knife than a rope.
(tạm dịch: vào đây rồi chết nhé con - vì mắc quá)

do you know what is it? it's a toilet! (really amazed, isn't it?)

(to be continued)

Waking up at 6:30, I knew that I had not enough time to go to Xi’an Jiaotong University in early morning to take some fresh photos. Wearing like a moron, as I usually do, I went straight to Nan Yang Hotel. It was really cold this morning, as cold as last night. I had a Western-like breakfast. My mood was the same as last night. Next I went to the conference room, stayed there for 4 straight hours, listened to some speeches while sleeping as if I was attending some lectures in NUS…



Time goes by… so slowly… and suddenly it was lunch time. I had a late chat with the Taiwanese professor, then a student from Xi’an Jiaotong. Took some photos with the long banner in front of the hotel. Learnt that I couldn’t book the train that I had planned to go. I had to choose another train. My plan shuffled. Anyway, things were resolved, I had a backup plan.

Tried to access to the internet, but couldn’t. The hotel was covered by “China Mobile Network”, which required an account to log in and unfortunately I don’t have. That was the moment I really wanted to go online for a couple of minutes, to say hello to my wife, to tell her I’m ok here. I missed her.

Dragged myself to one of the conference room to look for my friend, my savior. Stayed there for some talks, we disappeared together as he had a shopping plan with his girl friend, and I joined him.

Then the fun began.

First he passed by Shănxi History Museum to pick up his girl friend. “If you visit one museum in China, make it this one, for its unrivaled collection of treasures – c.f. Frommer’s”. Fine! I will visit it tomorrow morning. On the way to the Museum, about 300m away, it’s the Great Goose Pagoda. This is the best known temple in Xi’an, and worth a visit. This is the place that Xuánzàng housed the scriptures. (Xuánzàng: the master of the Monkey King in Journey to the West).





We headed to the Bell Tower by walking over the seemingly Orchard-road of Xi’an. This is another face of Xi’an, which is modernized, active and of course, crowded. The Bell Tower is 300 meters away from its brother, the Drum Tower. Along with the city wall, they were once the statues of the city, one to wake the city up, another to close a working day.

We arrived at out shopping destination: Islamic street. This street is considered the busiest antique street that also serves many authentic Xi'an cuisines.

Arrived at Xi’an at about 4:30pm. The first impression was the gray, high, solid city wall in front of the train station. My friend was there already to pick me up. Taxi is cheap here. You can go almost everywhere in the city for less than $3 per trip. On the taxi, he then told me something that I’d never expected: he would leave Xi’an in two days. It meant that my guide would leave me here alone. At that time I didn’t know how I could handle for the next few days. I had a huge list of places worth visiting, and without a guide, it would be really hard for me.

After signing up for the conference at Nan Yang hotel, he took me to look for a cheap hotel. It was not far, about 500 meters from Nan Yang hotel, and in front of Jiaotong University, just across the street.

At the dinner later, I met the young but interesting Taiwanese professor. Half an hour later, prof. Shu Chang came. And the chat later was in Chinese. Being as desperate as I was 1 hour before, I didn’t mind leaving, and sat there to listen to the boring and meaningless discussion between them. An hour later, they stopped, and we left the hotel. Prof. Shu and we wandered for some minutes before we headed back to our respective hotels, and I called it a day.