Jenn and I are back from our Beijing trip but while we were there we took a train over to Xi'an, which is considered the capital of modern China. Called the eternal city, Xi'an is one of the birthplaces of the ancient civilization in the Yellow River Basin of China. Thirteen dynasties placed their capitals here and Xi'an is as equally famous as Athens, Cairo, and Rome as one of the four major ancient civilization capitals.
Our favorite part of the city, other than the really cool hotel we stayed at,
HQ Guesthouse, (Thanks so much, Mai and Todd!) was exploring the 40 ft. high wall that completely surrounds the city. It is about 60 ft. wide, seems to be made from the same sort of everlasting stones as the Great Wall, and Jenn did some research and found out that you can rent a bicycle and bike the whole nine miles around the city - so that's what we did!
The bikes were classic Chinese - they rattled and squeaked but the tires were in good shape although it would have been better if they had more than one gear. It was cold so we had to stay bundled up but once we got warm it was comfortable. We took a video of it, just click on the pic above. It took a total of about two hours and the scenery was fantastic.
It was one of the best tourist attractions we've experienced since we left the states, almost as good as the
cable car going over the Yangtze river where Jenn was scared out of her mind...hahaha
Click here for pics from our bike ride on the wall of Xi'an
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