Xi'an, China Day 5 (Part 1 - City Wall)

Assalamualaikum w.b.t!

First of all, I am sorry for taking such a long time on this post. Well anyway today Alhamdulillah I'm finally gonna share on my trip to the City Wall, the largest and best preserved present city wall in ancient China and is probably the best military battlement in the world.

(Check out my previous post in Luoyang, China Day 4)

25th Oct 2014 (Day 5)

I fell in love with the architecture design of this historical City Wall.

Tour to City Wall was actually scheduled on the first day in China however, because our tour guide afraid that we might be late or hurried to catch our bullet train to Luoyang therefore she rescheduled it to the last day. 

Due to pack schedule we had that final day, most of the places we visited were in hurry and frankly speaking a rushed holiday just ain't good enough holiday. But anyway, I still enjoy the cinematic view of this magnificent City Wall subhanAllah! 

Somewhere around 8.30 am we checked out from hotel for the final time and then walked to the City Wall. The MengFei Hotel situated only 100 meters or 5 minutes walk from the City Wall and a walk in autumn's breezy morning was really nice.  

Checked out at lobby of the Flying Dragon Hotel, Xi'an - love the concept of pond filled with koi fishes.

Most of Japanese and Chinese love to keep koi fishes. This may due to the characteristics associated with the koi: (Taken from: feng-shui.lovetoknow.com)

Good fortune
Success
Prosperity
Longevity
Courage
Ambition
Perseverance

The street view right outside of the hotel where as early as 6.30 am (local time), you can see (and hear from your hotel window) the citizens started their daily life; busy going to work, market and sending children to school. 

Headed towards one of the main gate that was so high and huge!

This is the South Gate of City Wall Xi'an. 

The City Wall includes four gates, the east gate named as Changle which means eternal joy, the west gate named as Anding that is harmony peace, the south gate named as Yongning with the meaning of eternal peace and finally, the north gate Anyuan which means forever harmony.

There was this map showing those gates and what lies inside this City Wall that you can refer to just near the South Gate.

This is Miss Mei, our tour guide at Xi'an. She told us that she was born in Xi'an, raised there and plan to die nowhere else and indeed Miss Mei was like a walking Xi'an's encyclopedia. She knows every single thing about Xi'an.

We climbed up these stairs to get on top of the wall.
Need to be there early in the morning cause when sun started to show up, there's no place to hide.

It is not only because I'm small but it is also because there were many stairs to climb to!!
Well okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit. 

There were two museums of the South Gate which are the barbican and the archery tower. Tourists who visit the wall can enjoy a free visit to these two museums. Back in those days when there were enemies, the archery played an important part as the first defense squad for the city and for more info on this you can get inside the museum (which I did not have time to visit).

And tadaaa!!! The view on top of the City Wall!
That beautiful building on the left is the archery tower.

The South Gate (Yongning Gate) is the most time-honored and magnificent one among all the city gates. There were bicycles for rental up to the South Gate. So it is popular for visitors to ascend here. There were also battery car (long buggy car) to ride on.

To cycle round the wall for a whole circle takes 1.5 to 2 hours at a medium speed. The bicycle deposit is CNY 200. The single bicycle costs CNY 40/100 minutes. The tandem bicycle costs CNY 80/100 minutes.

An extra charge if more than 100 minutes. An extra 10 minutes costs CNY 5 for a bicycle, and CNY 10 for a tandem bicycle. Bicycles should be returned at the South Gate before 20:00 if you don’t return them before 18:00 at the other three gates.

The ordinary sightseeing battery car costs CNY 80 for a circle ride while the luxurious one costs CNY 120. One can also visit the wall by sections. The ordinary type costs CNY 20 between two stops. The luxurious type costs CNY 30.

Route: South Gate – West Gate – North Gate – East Gate

Info taken from: travelchinaguide.com

At only about 8.30 am this place is already packed with visitors.
Those green buses were some of the tourist buses. 

Its colour is preserved including some of the detailing in order to give the original 'feel' to the tourist.

There was this rule where any building inside of the City Wall must not be higher than the wall itself. Why? Well of course to ensure the safety of the building inside the wall, right? During the day that we visited the wall, we saw a morning market (pasar tani some sort of thing) far down inside the city wall. 

And there was this lorry filled with lots and lots of apples and many kinds of vegetables. I did not go to the market but from the looked of it I bet you can surely get most of the things, especially local foods, there.

So from this picture it is obvious that on the right side is the inside of the City Wall as on the left side there are many tall buildings can be seen.

Tour on the wall really impressed me with its work of architecture. While walking around, I saw these gaps in between the wall that facing outside the city, they were exactly like the one that can be seen in the most of the old castles. The purposed were same, to see the enemies who were approaching towards the wall and then to attack them while that wall become the shield of protection.

And for tourist like us, that was the perfect spot to take a selfie/wefie haha! (excuse me la, can't see many building like this in Malaysia).

This is the south wing area, the only part we visited.

Can you see those gaps in between the wall?

After only an hour (you need to spend at least two hours), we left the great City Wall. During the earlier part of the tour Miss Mei did explained some significant history of the wall and there was this one fact that I love the most about the history.

"..When Zhu Yuanzhang, the first Emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), captured Huizhou, a hermit named Zhu Sheng admonished him that he should 'built high walls, store abundant food supplies and take time to be an Emperor,' so that he could fortify the city and unify the other states."

The hermit gave such a wise advised to the emperor that all of us can also take lessons from. Zhu Sheng said store abundant of food supplies and for what reason? This is to ensure the welfare of his (emperor) people be one of his top priority. 

Back in those dynasty days, people defected and started a riot as due to hunger. Thus, once the emperor took care of the folk's welfare he would definitely wins their loyalty. And this was what exactly happened, the citizens were happy, the states unified and eventually known as it is today, China.

If you are an employer, or a group leader or even a house-father, do not rush to be seen as a 'leader'. Gain respect from your followers first, fulfill their rights and only then they will give their undivided loyalty and service towards your leadership.

After all,

Respect can only be given to those who have earned it by working for it - Habeeb Akande

This was how it looks like outside the South Gate.

This was the city guard. He wasn't crying or anything, I just caught him at the wrong time since I took this picture from inside a moving bus.

You can also take picture with this cute (cute here referring to the cartoon image of the city army, obviously heh!) thingy displayed by the stairs near the gate.  

Well, that's it for City Wall and in the next post I shall continue with the second place we visited on the final day.

Til then, Assalamualaikum!