Xi'an's City Wall

The city of Xi'an was once totally enclosed by a city wall. The wall is still there, but the city which now has a population of some 7.3 million has expanded well beyond it.

The Xi'an wall in it's current form was built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). While there have been many, many restorations, the wall itself has survived pretty much intact. Henry used to climb it when he was a school kit. Over the years, people took the bricks that surface the wall to build homes, but all that has been restored now.

This is the main gate. There are extensive fortifications around the gates, including two gates with a courtyard in between. If the attackers breach the first gate, archers can pick them off in the courtyard.

The wall is 13.7 km in length. That's 8.5 miles. It is 12 meters high (almost 40 feet) and 12 meters wide at the top. That's a lot of rammed earth!

The wall is also surrounded by a moat. And there are plenty of windows for archers to shoot at the enemy. I guess you can plink taxi cabs now days.

It's just a little incongruous that the view from the main gate is of the new subway being built.

There are a few replica weapons, such as this armored personnel carrier.

And this Mao-era air raid siren. Henry says they used to practice for air raids when he was a kid. I told him that we did too.