In the morning, after arriving in the delightful city of Xi’an the night before, we hit a place called the “Small Goose” Pagoda. It’s a peaceful calm place, very quiet. And the peace and quiet was accentuated by a light rain. The rain was welcome because the day before had been very dusty. Xi’an is infamous for the powdery dust that kicks up in the wind. The only thing that will tame it is rain, and the rain started the night that we arrived. Great timing.

It was great just wandering around the grounds near the pagoda. There was a man charging 5 Yuan to ring a giant bell (it brings you good luck of course) and there was a band of girls playing traditional Chinese music.   Nice. I shot a video of both and made this little movie.

After the pagoda, we hit the south gate of the city wall around Xi’an, the old wall that surrounded the city in ancient times. It was still misting some, but it was very pleasant sauntering around on top of the wall. Of course, there was a gift shop in one of the towers (the pagoda is the only place I think I did not see a gift shop thankfully) which was full of stamps, clothing, and expensive furniture. The merchandise is completely different from the stuff I see in Shenzhen. I still haven’t found a DVD salesman.

A neat neighborhood as seen from “the wall”: