Xi’an is an old city.  Old as in, it is one of China’s four great ancient capitals with over 3,100 years of history.  With that being said, the ancient Xi’an is very different from the modern day Xi’an.  However, these two dynamic sides still coincide together. 

When Xi’an was the capital of China, the people built a great wall around the city to protect it from outsiders.  The wall is almost 16 miles in length and anywhere between 40-50 feet thick.  Our program helped organize a trip where we could bike on top of the city wall!

I was shocked when we climbed to the top how wide the wall actually was.  If you looked out, it seemed like a large road was ahead of you.  It didn’t even feel like you were on top of a wall with the city oozing out on both sides.

Once I got over the initial awe of the wall, we began our (bumpy) bike ride.

As I biked, I got to see the city from a different point of view.

Some places (especially near the train station) were quite built up while other places were completely vacant.

These three pictures were taken about 10 minutes apart.  The city has expanded past the city wall now, but these vast differences inside the wall fascinates me.  I’d like to explore more of the city and get to know why these differences exist. 

As I finished the bike ride, I saw this old man getting his panda kite ready to fly.  It was a nice way to end the adventure.