The first place we were taken to upon arrival to Xi'an was the City Wall. From here, we could get a view of the location where the Silk Road began.
Sangho on the Xi'an City Wall
A very old watch-tower
Flowers growing on the roof
Hua Qing Chi
Hua Qing Chi, or Huaqing Pool, was frequented by Tang dynasty emperors and their concubines. Here you can see some waterless pools that were once filled with water pumped in from natural hot springs (I didn't take any photos of the pools, though, because the picture wouldn't have looked like much of anything). Legend has it that Emperor Tang Ming Huang spent a great deal of time at this place with his favorite concubine, Lady Yang, or "Yang Gui Fei." She is said to have been the most beautiful woman in all of Chinese history. They say the emperor spent so much time with her that he neglected his emperorly duties, and his empire fell. So needless to say Lady Yang was killed.
The entrance to Hua Qing Chi
A statue of Lady Yang stands in a pool filled with goldfish
Fishies!
More scenes
More scenes from Xi'an
We had some free time our first night in Xi'an, so we took a stroll around the area near our hotel. Remind me to tell you about the dip in the sidewalk that I fell flat on my face in because I was too busy looking at all the pretty colors to watch where I was going...
A small grocery store
A produce stand
Here, our tour guide and driver talk with a policeman who is writing them a ticket. Apparently the road in front of our hotel was temporarily closed to make way for a VIP, but there was no sign letting us know this, so the driver turned down the road. As you can see, other cars were heading down the same road while this was going on. It was so unfair...
