Xi'An Great City Wall

As I mentioned earlier we took a closer look at the great city wall of Xi'An. It is an impressive piece of work.

The first version was build 2200 years ago. It took four years to build and when completed it measured 25.7 km in length, enclosing an area of 36 km.

Inside is now the actual city centre and there is where you will find everything worth watching. And of course the wall itself is worth a visit.

The wall is wide enough for a bus to drive on it, though I didn't see one... but you can rent bikes if you are in a hurry around it. It was still slightly raining so we took a walk around half of the wall. In the picture up to the left you see me reading the city wall map in front of one of the entrances to the city. The city wall is behind me and the house on top of the wall is for the army archers to snipe on enemies.

Here is the house again after we climbed up. 

Notice the scale, it is not a small wall.

Matching waste bins.

 One of the many smaller houses on the wall.

Probably shelter for the soldiers.

 Imagine you are the enemy down there and

I am aiming my crossbow at you.

 Three small police cars, no police...  But around the corner behind the police car there is an entrance to a toilet, so I didn't dare to borrow the car. :(

 Cool Chinese roofs. Used to belong to a rich Chinese merchant, but now the government officials are using it.

 This can probably be of use in case of an invasion.

 The wall continues like forever...

Here we will get off the wall and enter the Muslim quarters. That is another place you must see when you go to Xi'An and you can read about it in my next blog entry. Cool house by the way.