Cycling the Xi'an city wall

All 14Km of it
...which is about 8.5 miles in old money. Xi'an's city wall, unlike Beijing's which now lies beneath the route of the second ring road, stands intact and magnificent. The old city's traditional north to south, east to west layout stamps smartly to four grand gates, with the wall (which must exceed five metres in height), squarely wrapping life within it.

Up upon it you can rent bikes for a couple of hours to tour around the city and enjoy the view, the sense of history, and relaxed pace of exploration. While avoiding the odd pothole, of course.





I liked the sign for the stairs, in case you'd not spotted them.




Perhaps the vanishing point gives some sense of scale...