18. Last stop in Xi'an -- the City Wall, another amazing structure


Atop Xi'an Wall
A single flight of some 40 steep stairs brought us up here

Day 14

Breakfast, always Bill's favorite meal, is especially so in China. He was awake before 7:00 AM anticipating early morning coffee in the lounge, followed by a healthy helping of scramble eggs at 8:00 AM. 

At 10:00 AM, we left the hotel to visit the 600-year old City Wall. This wall completely surrounds the old city and is 13.6 kilometers in girth. If you can see the bell tower in Drum Tower Plaza from where you are located, you are inside the old city wall. We spent nearly an hour walking on the wall and taking pictures.

Okay, so let us tell you about something really dumb. Since we had boarded the boat, Bill had been taking some photos with his SLR camera. Occasionally the gadget that displays the numbers gets a little out of whack, but he figured the roll of film ought to be just about exhausted. But when he opened the camera -- darn! no film! Sinking feeling? Blood draining out of his head? All of those great telephoto shots in the gorges ... the pagodas on the banks of the Yangtze ... oh, man! And now, the great shots from the top of the Xi'an City Wall ... and of Virginia on the stairs up to the top ... gone! We'll have to make another trip to do them again (we wish). 

Xi'an wall gatehouse
Xi'an city wall gatehouse from below

Also, we will have filled all of our digital camera media by the time we leave Xi'an this afternoon. We can't buy more media here, but have been assured that it will be available in BeiJing.

Before eating lunch, we walked down the street and looked through the stores. In one of them, there was a young mother with a little girl about two years old. The mother was anxious to be friendly, but the little one wanted no part of us. Guess we just looked funny to her ... like aliens, maybe.

Our bus was parked in Drum Tower Plaza where there is a restaurant on the second floor. Believe it or not, here was a seven-story hotel ... with an elevator. We were overjoyed with the fact that we wouldn't have to walk the stairs.

At 1:30 PM, we headed for the Xi'an Airport and for our flight to BeiJing that left at 3:30 PM.

We arrived in BeiJing at 5:45 PM. On the bus, we were introduced to our (cute) new local guide and photographer. Both would be with us for the duration of our stay in BeiJing.

BeiJing means North Capital. This is a city of 13,000,000 people and 8,000,000 bicycles. It covers 16,800 square kilometers. According to our local guide, the people plant 1,000,000 trees every year in an attempt to alter the climate and keep the sand from the Gobi Desert from dusting the city. Right now, they are experiencing a drought, which makes it very difficult to keep the trees watered. Normal temperatures range from 80 to 85 degrees, but it was in the 90's all the while we were there -- very arid -- and 96 when we left.

We stayed at the Hotel New Otani in BeiJing. It is located in a very nice section of the city. The Jianguomen Wai Dajie in front has four lanes of traffic in each direction. We've been told that we can buy many things in the gift shop in the hotel -- like disposable cameras. Anything we can't buy there, we can certainly buy at the department store on the next corner or at any one of the many other stores on the boulevard.

Hotel New Otani, Bei Jing
Our hotel in BeiJing -- nice!

This hotel was very plush and, having 25 floors, it had elevators. Musicians played ancient Chinese instruments in the lobby. They were all dressed in colorful, traditional ancient Chinese attire.

After exploring the main floor of the hotel, we went to our room. Tomorrow, we will get some photo media -- you know, if you don't get pictures, it's like you weren't even there. And to return from China without photos of everything would be unforgiveable.

But right now, let's work on getting some sleep! 

<Previous> Table of Contents  <Next>