Our today's project was to walk the full rectangle on the ancient but very well preserved/restored Xi'an city wall (the largest city wall in the world according to some sources). We started at the railway station (North-eastern section of the wall) and walked 16.7km for 5h10min (moving time 4h09min) to complete the task a little before sunset.
The walk takes place on the 15m-wide top of the wall, passing watch towers and going over city gates, and offers views to the moat and parks by the wall, and the city inside and outside the wall. Outside there are many skyscrapers and inside some older buildings. But nothing too spectacular.
Only a few entry points onto the wall are open to the public and one has to pay 40 CNY (= 6 USD) to enter. This might explain why there were relatively few people on the wall, especially in the Northern sections where the views are not so good. I wonder what the locals think about the situation that a relatively large area in the middle of the city is accessible only if you pay a considerable amount of money.
No food (beyond ice-cream) is sold on the wall so if you decide to go on this hike be sure to pack a sandwich. Also consider that your entry gate might have closed for the night when you arrive back to your starting point and that you have to break the law a bit and climb over some fences before you can sit down to your evening's dumplings and beer.
Tomorrow will do more sightseeing in Xi'an and in the evening will travel back to Beijing.
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