The Wall

The weather reports said it was going to snow a little bit on Saturday morning. Thankfully, it was sunny and 41ºF with some wind—no snow, sleet, or rain. A nice fall day, and a perfect time to go to the Xi’an City Wall.

The wall was initially built during the old Tang Dynasty (618 – 907 C.E.) with a base layer of dirt, lime, and glutinous rice extract (this doesn’t change how I feel about glutinous rice desserts—they’re still good). During the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644 C.E.), the wall was enlarged and rebuilt with bricks.  Standing at 12 meters (about 40 feet) high, 15 meters wide on the top (about 50 feet), and a perimeter of 13.94 km (about 8.5 miles), the Xi’an City Wall is the most intact among the ancient Chinese city walls, and one of the largest ancient military defense systems in the world.

Map of the Xi'an City Wall.

Information about the wall. All of the informational signs were
in Chinese and English.

It would have been a five-mile walk to the wall from the hotel, so since I was planning to walk the 8.5-mile wall, I decided to splurge and catch a bus to the South Gate. The subway and many of the buses in Xi’an accept the Public Transportation Card (PTC), which I have thanks to one of my colleagues who bought one for me (I paid for it, but he went to the station office to purchase it). Cardholders get a 50% discount on bus fares and a 10% discount on subway fares. Not too shabby! Although the fares are not that expensive to begin with—most local bus fares are 1-3RMB (so less than $1).

The front of my Public Transportation Card.

The back.

So with the question of dealing with bus fares out of the way, the next issue was which of the more than 200 bus lines would get me to the South Gate of the City Wall? I haven’t been able to find any comprehensive maps of the Xi’an bus system online, but TravelChinaGuide.com has a good listing of most of the lines and their stops, although not with a map. Luckily, Xianese, a local magazine and website primarily for ex-pats in Xi’an, has good maps of the city in each issue and on its website. The maps show the more frequently used bus lines, and it just so happens that quite a few bus lines has stops on Keji Lu, a five-minute walk from the hotel.

According to the map, line 604 had stops on Keji Lu and across the southwestern half of the City Wall. Off I went to the bus stop.

A 604 came along after about ten minutes. It was packed. It also had a conductor rather than a PTC reader. Not a big deal—I was prepared with a few 1RMB notes. Your destination determines the fare you pay, so I told the conductor I was headed to Nan Men (the South Gate) and I pointed to it on the map I had. I think the conductor said that the 604 bus didn’t go there—neither she nor the driver spoke English. She conferred with the driver, and they told me that I needed to take the 402 (I did understand that part). They were very nice about it, and didn’t charge me.

When we turned onto another street, lo and behold there was a 402 bus at the stop in front of us! The driver let me off at the stop, but the 402 pulled away before I could get to it. The 604 driver honked at the 402, but the bus didn’t stop, so the driver signaled me to get back on his bus. He sped up considerably on the way to the next stop, and this time I made it. Thanks to the drive of the 604, I made it to the right bus and didn’t have to wait for another one to come along. What a nice guy!

The 402 bus was less crowded than the 604.

The 402 is equipped with a PTC reader, so I waved my card in front of the machine and paid 0.50RMB. I followed the bus’s progress, turn-by-turn, using the Xianese map, and when we turned onto the road that runs along the southern wall, I got off the bus. The map made it look like it was just a few blocks from the southwestern corner to the South Gate . . . it’s actually quite a bit longer. I walked for about 20-25 minutes through the park outside the wall and the moat before arriving at the South Gate.

A restaurant outside the south portion of the
City Wall on the way to the South Gate.

Even the trash receptacles were neat.

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's people flying kites outside the wall!

The three kites.

I do need a haircut, but these guys looked pretty busy already.

Fishing in the moat.

Upon entering the gate, I looked around for the access point to get to the top of the wall. I found it, but getting there was like being in a game of Frogger. Check it out:

The crazy intersection. You come from the far left across three lanes
of traffic, and get to the middle of the intersection where you are in the
middle of six lanes of traffic flowing in both directions. If you're lucky,
there will be a brief opening in the flow so you can make it to the yellow
cones, and the safety of the path to the wall. 

I made it to the other side in one piece. (My peripheral vision is getting a daily workout in China.) As I was walking up the path looking at the immensity and beauty of the gate, I had this “Oh my goodness, I’m really in China!” feeling. Not that I didn’t realize I was in China when I was walking around Shanghai, but the feeling was much stronger.

I paid 40RMB (about $6) for a ticket to enter, and made my way into this incredible structure.

An "Oh my goodness, I'm really in China!" moment. 

Once on top of the wall, I looked for the bike rental area—one of the awesome things about touring the wall is that you can rid a bike along it! I paid 200RMB (about $32) as a deposit (they must have had problems with people not returning bikes), and 40RMB for 100 minutes of rental time (that’s standard—on average, it takes 1.5 to 2 hours to ride the entire 13.94 km).

A set of stairs leading up to the top of the wall.

View of the South Gate courtyard from the top of the stairs. 

Apparently they let anybody with 240RMB rent a bike. 

I’m sure it does only take 1.5 to 2 hours if you don’t stop to take pictures every few feet, but how can you not stop and take pictures? The way and its surroundings are amazing! After realizing that I was never going to make it around the whole wall if I kept stopping, I realized I could steer the bike with my right hand and hold my camera in my left hand, taking pictures using the “action” setting since I was in motion. The pictures weren’t great, so I did stop occasionally to get some good ones.

Taken in motion. The buildings in the background are outside the wall. 

One of the watch towers along the wall. 

The underside of the watch tower roof. Amazing detail!

No monkeying around! 

Another in-motion shot. These buildings are inside the wall.

Jasweck as sentinel.

Door handles on one of the watch towers.

Check out the traffic inside the wall!

A Buddhist monastery inside the north-east corner of the wall.

Deep contemplation going on here.

If you ever go to Xi’an and ride a bike around the city wall, here are a few tips:

1. Be prepared for bumpy terrain. Lots of “pot holes,” uneven bricks, and small ramps.
2. Wear padded biking gloves. The bikes are nice, but the handlebars are covered in textured rubber that can irritate sensitive palms.
3. Don’t walk away from your bike even though you’ve put the kickstand down, especially on windy days. The kickstands are more decorative than functional.
4. Do the touristy thing (i.e., ride, stop, take pictures, ride, stop, take pictures, ride, stop, you get the idea) once. Then go back another time and just enjoy the whole experience without the picture pressure. 

I returned the bike at the 100-minute mark and got my 200RMB deposit back. I took a few more pictures as I left.

City Wall workers in period costume.

The tunnel to enter and exit the South Gate courtyard. 

Then, for something completely different, I walked around the inner city and found my way here:

Really.

My colleagues told me there is a Super WalMart just inside the South Gate (I think there are a total of three WalMarts in Xi'an). I was already in the area, so why not check it out? It’s definitely not like Super WalMarts in the U.S.—much more cramped (it was in the basement of the building) and more confusing to find your way around. I bought two loaves of bread, apples, dragon fruit, enoki mushrooms, broccoli, dried kiwi slices, and hair conditioner, all for 95.90RMB (about $15). The prices were comparable to the prices at Louts (I like Lotus better—more spacious).

A little crabby are we? (I didn't buy any.)

I was intrigued by the "shower heads."

Yes! Another Dairy Queen in Xi'an! This brings the count up
to two of which I am aware at this point. 

Laden with goodies from WalMart, I walked to a line 402 bus stop outside the wall. The ride back to Keji Lu was about 15 minutes, and another 0.50RMB.