XiAn city wall

On Sunday, Aug. 31, our plane to Guangzhou was not scheduled to leave until 3 pm so we had some time in the morning to see one more sight in XiAn, the city wall. The current wall was rebuilt in 1370 AD. It has been kept up over the years and is in very good condition today. There are four original gates although they have added several more in modern times to improve traffic.

This is one of the guard houses above one of the original gates.

As you can see, this wall is fairly level and goes for quite a ways. It forms a complete rectangle around where the old city was. We only walked for about 40 minutes, 20 minutes one way and then back.

The van ride to the airport was interesting also. Our guide pointed out a number of burial mounds visible from the highway. Most are for lower level officials and generals. The countryside around XiAn seems almost littered with the mounds. Probably only a small fraction have been explored.