Never ending wall

For our first full day in Xi'an we headed ten minutes walk up the road to the city wall. It's a wall that has completely been modernised and maintained so that it is in tact and accessible to the public. There was the option to purchase a combined ticket for the wall and museum that was inside so we opted for this deal. The museum however was a little bit of a disappointment. It's main features which made up 60% of the exhibits were stone tablets with Chinese enscriptjons. Unfortunately they provided no translation or information on what the tablets said or their meaning which limited us to appreciate their significance. There was however a gallery of beautiful Chinese art as well as a large collection of stone carvings including a maze of pillars with characters carved on the tops. After the museum we headed to the wall and entered at the south gate which is nearest to where we are staying. The size of the wall was impressive but it was also incredibly wide so you can see how it provided aged deference barrier. We started walking at about 2.30 and didn't finish the complete circuit until 7.30 so it was quite a long rectangle wall to walk. There was the option to cycle around the top but that was more money so we didn't go for this option. Unfortunately the weather was awful; it was rainy and freezing cold. Xi'an as well seems to have a lot of pollution so that combined with the rain made visibility a views very poor which was a shame. Because the walk took so long we were still on the wall when it went dark and they switched on all the lanterns. They also lit up the turret style buildings so the once very boring samey wall suddenly transformed into something much more beautiful. Although it is impressive I did find it a bit too commercialised and much preferred walking the walls of York with my sister which have such character and interest and haven't been so restored.Read more