Another fantastic day in China. I have forgotten to mention in previous posts that we have been having very hot days and at night there are thunder storms. Last night was not exception and there was a great lightening show.
We arrived in Xi'an around 9am and were able to check straight into our hotel room. We had showers and met down in the lobby for our orientation tour. Our hotel is inside the city walls, very close to the Bell tower and not far from the South gate. We set off towards the South Gate where Yisha told us we could hire bikes to ride around on the city wall. We then walked through a little bar street where all the bars were set up for the world cup. She also pointed out banks, bakeries and supermarkets along the way. We headed towards the Muslim quarter passing the Bell tower and the Drum tower.
The markets in the Muslim quarter reminded us of Aleppo and Damascus. We bought a set of teracotta worriers for 15 Yuan($3).
We had a lovely lunch with the group in the Muslim quarter before heading off to the drum tower. We were lucky enough to see a performance while we were up there.
It was very hot and we decided to go back to the hotel for a rest. At around 5pm we decided to go to the wall and hire some bikes. As it happened Lisa, Pam and Annie were in the Lobby just about to set off to do the same thing. We hired a tandem and started our ride at 5.30pm and rode the entire wall in exactly 90 minutes. We had great views over the city from the wall.
After our ride we went back to the bar street for a drink and to watch some of the world cup. We saw the Argentina vs South Korea match and it was interesting to see the Chinese patrons barracking for Argentina and not one of their neighbors. It was quite late when we left the bar so we stopped off at a little street vendor and had an egg crepe thing for dinner. The Bell tower looked really good lit up for the night.
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