Xi’an (西安) is one of the oldest cities in China. Known as Chang’an throughout much of its history, Xi’an is one of China’s Five Great Ancient Capitals (Xi’an, Beijing, Luoyang, Nanking, Kaifeng).
西 (xī): West 安 (ān): Peace
The apostrophe, géyīn fúhào, should be included to distinguish its pronunciation from the single syllable xian.
The city of Xi’an is widely considered to be one of the four most significant capitals of the ancient world, along with Cairo, Athens, and Rome.
Having surveyed the truly incredible Great Wall of China whilst in Beijing, we were very much looking forward to enjoying what the Xi’an City Wall had to offer.
The walls form a complete rectangular shape measuring 13.74 kilometres (about 8.5 miles) around central Xi’an. The wall stands 12 metres high, with a top width of 12 to 14 metres and a base thickness of 15 to 18 metres.
Wow! Being familiar with the York City Wall, back home, this is like comparing Hadrian’s Wall to the Great Wall?
Wanting to be at the heart of it all, we made sure to base ourselves within the walled area.
First day in Xi’an, so it made sense to us that we should get up on that wall. Yes, our collective instinct that saw this wall as being on quite another scale was indeed correct.
We entered at the East Gate and headed off towards the South Gate (a.k.a. Gareth ⚽️).
I don’t look good in red so I resisted the photo opportunity.
And we didn’t linger…
The walk along the wall was punctuated by a series of small exhibitions. This particular one caught our eye…
Our favourite…
The Rotten Axe Handle (烂柯; pinyin: làn kē) is an ancient Chinese legend about time passing differently in the realm of immortals, predating stories like Rip Van Winkle by over a thousand years.
Wang Chih was a hardy young fellow who used to venture deep into the mountains to find suitable wood for his axe. One day he went farther than usual and became lost. He wandered about for a while and eventually came upon two strange old men who were playing Go, their board resting on a rock between them. Wang Chih was fascinated. He put down his axe and began to watch. One of the players gave him something like a date to chew on, so that he felt neither hunger nor thirst. As he continued to watch he fell into a trance for what seemed like an hour or two. When he awoke, however, the two old men were no longer there. He found that his axe handle had rotted to dust and he had grown a long beard. When he returned to his native village he discovered that his family had disappeared and that no one even remembered his name.
Meanwhile, outside, this chap clearly was not taught (or has forgotten) the legend of the rotten axe handle. We wondered if we should wake him up, otherwise who knows just how much time might pass in the mortal world before he awakes. We considered giving him a nudge but thought better of it…
And so, on towards Gareth…
A long way down but she wasn’t tempted ☝🏻 You can hire bikes at points all along the wall. It was reassuring to see the expandables in place. Good order must prevail…
On reaching the South Gate we dropped down and walked back along to the Old Market, where we had a large pot (constantly refilled) of Chinese White tea.
The market itself was quite something; colourful, and full of some very impressive wares, especially the fruit and vegetables.
We then headed into the centre of town; the Bell Tower…
In this area, multiple shopping ‘malls’ abound. Talk about an old and new fusion…
Heading back to our base we came across two cases of an up-market expandable…
And check this one out…
Where else but…
End note:
No judgement intended, as respect for one another’s cultural inclinations must be accepted and exercised if one enters another’s homeland but we were a little taken aback this morning when checking out the pool/spa/gym facilities in our hotel. They have a sauna here but it is male-only. If you are a lady you can have a massage. If you want a swim then…
We really didn’t know quite what to make of the final sentence!
P.S. Not a trolleybus in sight…
However, an interesting development… the electric tram…
Terracotta Warriors tomorrow!
Previous daily China blogs here
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