Day 11 - Dunhuang to Xi'an

Sat with Dave Makepeace on the plane ride from Dunhuang to Xi'an. Dave met Sheridan Williams, a well known astronomy writer from England. Xi'an has a population of 7 million in the general area. It was the capital of China for 1100 years. We are staying in the Sofitel hotel. It is rated 5 star, but we like the 4 star Le Meridian in Shanghai better. Cyd and I walked towards the west gate of the Forbidden City wall. We were hoping to get up on and walk the wall. Turns out the entrance is at the south gate. We past under the wall and headed south. A young english speaking couple stopped us because the walk way was blocked ahead. We headed north and walked all of the way to the north gate. The outside wall is one large park. We saw pool tables, old and new, badminton, exercise equipment, song birds and ping pong tables. The north wall is adjacent to their rail road station. There were hundreds of people sitting at the wall waiting for a train or to be picked up. The english speaking water vender told us it's hard to make a decent wage in Xi'an, so being the big spenders we are we bought an extra bottle of water. We ate the buffet dinner that evening in the hotel with Marshal, Mary, Bill and Tony. Marshall and Mary will be staying in China for 8 more days than the rest of the group.