Day 193: The Walls of Xi'an

Xi'an, as a city, isn't all that pretty. When people thing of big cities in China they think of Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and such. In reality, China has around 50 cities with 6 million or more people, and anything below maybe 8 million is thought of as a mini-city. Xi'an, at just over 8 million people, isn't huge by China standards, but it's a major industrial area and was by far the smoggiest city I've been in.

A few of us decided to head up to the broad walls that surround the old city and rent bicycles to ride the 8km or so around the wall perimeter. There is a small strip of green space surrounding the wall that people use for exercise in the morning, so we would stop periodically to watch people or just check out the scenery and interesting buildings.

In the afternoon we visited an old pagoda next to a musical fountain and spent a few hours exploring there. I didn't find either all that exciting, but it was nice to just walk around for a bit while avoiding the harrowing experience of trying to cross streets in big Chinese cities.

After a few hours of exploring town and stocking up on supplies it was time to head back to the train station for another long train ride to Chengdu in Sichuan Province.