Today before we took our flight to Beijing we stopped at the Xian City Wall. When Zhu Yuanzhang, the first Emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), captured Huizhou, a hermit named Zhu Sheng admonished him that he should 'built high walls, store abundant food supplies and take time to be an Emperor,' so that he could fortify the city and unify the other states. After the establishment of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang followed his advice and began to enlarge the wall built initially during the old Tang Dynasty (618 - 907), creating the modern Xian City Wall. It's the most complete city wall that has survived in China, as well being one of the largest ancient military defensive systems in the world.
We visited the south gate, Yongning which is the most beautifully decorated one. It is very near to the Bell Tower, center of the city. Important greeting ceremonies organized by the Provincial Government are usually held in the south gate square.
As we are only here once even though we didn't have a lot of time I decided to hire a bike and ride to the next tower and back.
After the wall we headed to the airport for our flight to Beijing. When we arrived we headed our for dinner at the local shopping centre where we had to order for ourselves. In the end we had a great meal and now we know the word for rice we are becoming experts.
Fitbit steps 17,144, 11.4km
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