...have wheels, will travel...

We’d heard that renting bicycles is the best way to get around the Xi’an City Wall, (8.5 miles) and that proved to be good advice. The early hour, the rainy morning, and perhaps the fact that many people were going out of town for last week’s festival, meant that we had plenty of elbow room. 

As far as operating any kind of vehicle on the regular roads, we have no such inclination.  We are quite happy to catch the bus, taxi, or ride with locals in their personal vehicles (mostly with people from the school).  Here are a few pictures we took that day of people in transit.  As I’m writing this post, I realize we have not photographed the multitude of luxury cars that are in this neighborhood.  BMW’s, Jaguars, Mercedes Benz, Porsches, and other models are packed into the Lotus parking lot. 

View of the train station from the Xi'an City Wall.

The traffic was lighter that morning coming into the South Gate of the City Wall, likely because of the time of day.

The rain meant that the cars really needed to be washed.  The dust in the air made our rain jackets look about like this car!

Bicycles really are the most versatile and reliable vehicles, it seems, in these narrow streets on the Muslim quarter.

Naptime didn't have to wait for this little passenger!  I snapped the photo out the bus window.

An intersection in Muslim quarter.  Below are photos Ben and I took from the inside of one of these vehicles on our first (and possibly only :) ride.



Lots of safety features, like windshields, and a skilled driver. (There was no brake for back seat drivers.  I checked.)