Packing for the last part of our journey in Beijing and the breakfast buffet herald the day. Then we're off by bus to the south gate of the old city wall in Xian in order to ride bikes around it, but we are first ushered to a room where a man gives us a short talk about feng shui, followed by an "invitation" to see some jade after telling us how "lucky" we are to be here today since they're only open about 6 days a month. (Really?). I notice from the corner of my eye that our guide has been ushered up a different stairway while we are taken up a set of stairs to a small showroom where we are shown jade pieces. I'm feeling irritated that this "opportunity" has been thrust upon us again when it has not been mentioned and we did not indicate interest in this. We were very clear about our intention to ride bikes on the city wall this morning. At any rate, we exit as expeditiously and politely as we can without buying a thing. We make our way up to the area where we rent bikes to ride around the city wall. The bikes look pretty worn, but we hope they're in decent enough shape to set off and get around. Probably goes without saying but there are no helmets. The city wall was constructed during the Ming Dynasty in 1370. The old part of the city is within the rectangle shaped perimeter of the wall. The perimeter is 14km while the height of the wall is 12 meters. There is a moat around the whole perimeter. It is oppressively hot but we are instantly delighted that we inserted this into our itinerary here. Beyond the starting point of our bike trip, it appears that we have the path ahead practically to ourselves. The width of the wall is about 20 feet, but that's a guess since we didn't measure it. We stop to take some photos along the way of the old part of the city inside the wall with special attention to the old rooflines as well as some photos of the juxtaposition of the wall in relation to the new high-rises outside of it. We also stop so that Richard can fix the chain of my bike which popped off as I rode through a pothole and adjust the seat on Gail's bike to make it a comfortable height. We stop briefly to watch a drumming group practice with two lines of soldiers costumed in attire from a previous century lined up perpendicularly to them while standing at attention. We move on with the wall ahead of us still to ourselves. No matter the heat, this is fun and a nice diversion from the typical tour. We ride through a series of large, nylon, inflated figures of tigers (- this is the "Year of the Tiger") and lotus flowers and other things and then we notice a large area inside the wall that appears to be rubble where whatever was there was demolished. Old homes? We make it back to our starting point after about an hour and a half, tired, hot, sweaty, but happy to have done this. We agree that this has clearly been a highlight of our time in Xian.
Later, we're even happier that we spent the morning riding bikes on the city wall after we arrive at the airport to fly to Beijing only to learn that the flight is delayed. A few more delays make for a late arrival in Beijing - about 9pm, but our guide "Sunny" is there to greet us along with our bus driver Mr. Han who transports us to the Nikko New Century Hotel where we will stay while we're in Beijing. We're tired and hungry so we head to the restaurant in the hotel to get something light to eat. Our waitress is from Yangzhou! Small world it is.
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