The lower, inner walls are called parapets. They were used to prevent soldiers from falling off the wall, when traveling back and forth. I remember seeing a bunch of food stalls looking down from our bike ride on the city wall in Xi'an. We looked it up on Google Maps and found it was called Yongxingfang. We asked our guide, Jacob, about it and he asked if we wanted to go there for lunch.
Since it's the kind of place we would normally go, we said yes. It was a great experience, better than another restaurant. China Highlights is the best China-based travel agent that enables you to create your own trip , so you get the best out of any journey, just the way you want it! Most of our Xi'an tours include the Ancient City Wall. China Highlights uses cookies to give you the best possible service. If you continue browsing, you agree to the use of cookies.
More details can be found in our privacy policy. Home Travel Guide Xi'an. Cycling on Xi'an City Wall. Xi'an Travel Guide. Ancient City Wall. Best Time to Visit Xi'an. A moat runs around the walls. An artist's impression of a gate of the Ancient City Wall in its former glory.
Read the policy. Xi'an, China CNN — For a city with a history of a few dozen centuries, and one that's also home to the 2,year-old Terra-cotta Army , Xi'an, China's year-old city wall is a relatively new kid on the block. Then again, it's a pretty impressive block. At 12 meters high and 15 meters wide, the kilometer-long Xi'an City Wall is the most complete ancient city wall in China.
It's also the most dramatic place to view one of China's most fascinating cities. Standing in the city center of Xi'an -- capital city of Shaanxi Province in northwest China -- the ancient structure is the only fortification in China that still stands as an unbroken rectangular circuit.
While it may not get the accolades of that other famed wall -- the Great Wall commonly associated with Badaling near Beijing actually stretches for an estimated 21, kilometers -- it's rightly become one of the country's major tourist attractions.
Not long ago, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg enjoyed his morning jog there. If your riding has surpassed the designated pm, you can return your bike at pm at the South Gate. There are plenty of bikes, single and tandem, that can save a lot of time from your walk. The hire stations are located at the access points of the four gates. The bike ride is a little uncomfortable with the surface a bit bumpy due to the cobble stone paved surface, hurting your hands, wrists or buttocks a bit.
As a third choice to go around the wall surface, you can take a battery buggy driven around the entire perimeter. For an ordinary buggy for one circle, you need to pay RMB 80 or for a luxury buggy.
You also can take the buggy section by section, which costs you 20 RMB for an ordinary buggy and RMB 30 for a luxury buggy between two stops. There are English signs pointing to the directions and many signs also give you the history of the wall.
There are small shops on the surface of the wall for drinks, some refreshments or small souvenirs. Take your camera or iPhone to have some interesting candid photos of the local activities near the gates — dancing, singing, playing chess, etc.
As the first defense line, the moat surrounding the wall has drawbridges before each city gate. As the only access, the drawbridges are laid down in day time to allow the entry and exit of people, and are raised at night to cut off the access to the city. The second defense line is the floodgate tower, which controls the drawbridges and is responsible for announcing the night watches and giving an alarm.
Behind the floodgate tower is the archery tower, which is located outside the gate tower. Over 30m in height, the archery tower has a vertical outer wall and is densely covered with arrow hole, convenient for observation and shooting. The fourth defense line is the enclosed space between archery tower and gate tower, called barbican.
Barbican is a semicircular or quadrate small city built outside the city gate to enhance the defense of the city. The four barbicans of the Ancient City Wall cover over m2, if the enemies enter into the barbican, the garrison army will kill them from a high point, just like shooting fish in a barrel.
The last defense line is certainly the principle gate. Except for the strong fortified city wall, there are four turrets at each corner of the city wall to assist the city gate in observing and defensing the surrounding enemy.
There is a rampart tower extending out from the city wall every m, 20m in width and 12m in length, 98 rampart towers in total. The outer edge of the rampart towers and city wall is topped with crenellations for observation and shooting, called battlement. While the inner edge of the wall is topped with parapet to protect the soldier from falling off. After you climb up the wall, the best way to visit is riding a bicycle around the wall.
The guarantee deposit is yuan per bike. Where to rent: there are 19 city gates in total, and you can rent the bike at the four principle gates, for other small gates, you need to walk for a close distance to reach the rent site. Each rent site is on the wall, and you can rent and return at any of them. Riding route: normally, people climb up the wall through the South Gate and ride a circle back to the South Gate.
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