Xi’an City

After visiting the Longmen Grottoes on Thursday morning, we took a train to Xi’an. Some pictures from the window:

Friday morning started with a tour of the labs at our host’s school (his name is Jingping Ni and he is the department head there).

Various street scenes:

This is looking out the front window of one of our taxis. The driving is just crazy.

The city wall in Xi’an is the oldest surviving wall that is still completely intact. It is nearly 50 feet wide and a total of 13 km all the way around. They hold a race there every year.

The moat outside the wall

One of the main gates under the wall

On top of the wall

Some restorations outside the wall, done in the original style.

Some of the intricate woodwork on the watchtowers that appear along the wall.

More street scenes

Two other sites in the city are the bell tower and the drum tower. With Tammy below is Luo Guo. She is Jingping’s student and took Tammy shopping Friday afternoon.

Some artwork on the ceiling inside the bell tower.

At the drum tower we got to see a performance.

A market near the drum tower.

An amazing dumpling banquet.

Inside a big department store:

At dinner Luo won 5 yuan in a table lottery.