Xi'an -- City Wall

HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY!!!!
And we were prepared to celebrate our Thanksgiving with Slim Jims and Butterfingers ;0)
Although, we had such a busy day, we never had the chance to partake :0(

But, back to our tour....

Xi'An is the city of peace in the west.
Xi = west An = peace
It is a city of eight million people and covering 5600 square miles where an apartment is four times cheaper and salaries are half than in Beijing.

Twenty-two hundred years old and the starting point of the silk road, Xi'an is the only Chinese city with its wall still standing. Our hotel was also the only hotel inside the city wall.

Up until 600 years ago, the inner area of the wall was surrounded by a moat and only accessed by a drawbridge, but entered only by the royal family, keeping the poor outside the walls.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Queen for a Day!! ..... or at least a few moments... 

 

 

I have no idea what this thing is, but, it seems it would be a very mean crowd control device! 

The wall has an outer gate and an inner gate. When an enemy attacks and breaks through the outer gate, they believe they've broken into the city, but, they've put them self in a trap in this square. During the National War, Xi'An was saved from destruction by "catching a turtle in a jar"!

Old meets new .... and even newer being built.
LOVED seeing the colorful fall leaves!!!!  

It took me a bit to realize this was a trash can! 

The Baileys 

Yep, a Mini-Cooper on the side of a building!! 

Looks like China loves Pepsi! 

Meet our driver,  Peng. He may have done a great job maneuvering their 3-ring road system, but he NEVER smiled. And, it was obvious he sat on the bus and smoked the whole time we were off of it..... But, guess that shouldn't have been such a surprise since 700 million people smoke in China. The government owns the the tobacco company (making a profit from the cigarette sales) and pays farmers to grow the tobacco. Men actually greet each other in the mornings by exchanging cigarettes. If they, by chance, don't smoke, they put it behind their ear saving it to pass along later.

Speaking of greetings, I found it interesting how their greetings have traded through the years....
Before the 1970s people would greet each other with "Have you eaten?" replying with "I've eaten" regardless if they had or not. (Sounds familiar to our "How are you?" "Just fine." even when things are not fine!)
Over time that greeting changed to "Have you become rich?"
While the modern day greeting is "Have you divorced?" due to the fact their divorce rate has gone from 0% to 33% just in this century!