Greetings from Xi'an, China

Every day, I say this is the best day ever, but today I really mean it. We arrived in Xi'an this morning after taking the overnight train from Beijing. Xi'an is much closer to the "real" China than the very modern world city of Beijing. After a quick morning snack, we headed out to explore the old city walls. Unlike many cities in China, where the walls have either been completely or partially destroyed, Xi'an's walls completely encircle the oldest part of the city. The walls were originally built during the Ming dynasty over 1000 years ago, although many sections have been rebuilt, some as recently as a year ot two ago. Shortly after climbing to the top of the wall, we discovered that we could rent bicycles and ride around on top of the walls, which of course we did. After a long night on the train, where between our group and 2 other larger groups of American students we drank all of the beer on the train, a bike ride was very much needed. The feeling of riding a bike on top of a 1000 year old wall is indescribable and the views of the old city incredible. To completely ride around the entire wall was 14 km (9 miles), and by the end we were hot and sweaty and tired, but all agreed this was by far the best thing we'd done so far.