Xian is the ancient capital of China but the city itself seemed more modernized than Beijing. Despite the bad air quality we had throughout the entire trip, Xian to me was a beautiful city. The city was surrounded by a city wall, which by bike can be circled to get a good view of the city as well. We took 2 side trips from Xian. The first was to go climbing on Mt Huashan, one of the 5 most famous mountains in China. Despite a little bit of rain and thunder we made it to the highest point, the south peak. We then also climbed the west peak and the north peak. Unfortunately, we took too much time climbing the various parts of the mountain that we missed our bus back to the city. Then next day we went to see the Terracotta Warriors. Although I’ve seen pictures of them before, I never realized the grand scale of what was buried there without seeing it with my own eyes. Simply amazing.

The Big Wild Goose Pagoda.

Downtown center of Xian. Especially in the evening when it full of people relaxing after a hard day

The almost vertical ropeway up to Mt Huashan. From the top its another 3 hours to get to the south peak.

Celebrating at the north peak when we should have been going to the bus.

Terracotta Warriors.

Taking a rickshaw ride atop the city wall at dusk.