Xian

So the last day in Beijing was swell. Ben and I walked around the Summer Palace and the Hutong (old Beijing). It was very fun to walk around old Beijing and get a feel for modern day Beijing as well.

Below is a scene from Old beijing where I presume all the tourists hang out.
It's funny, most times Beijing looked very clean and like a developed country... and then they have food courts that look dirty like the below.Ben and I then took an 11 hour train ride to Xian. It was not too bad as we slept most of the time. The few other hours were spent playing Rummy 500 and drinking Chinese whiskey.

Xian is a "2nd tier" city in China... it has 7 million people! Beijing and Shanghai have between 14 and 17 million.

Below is either the Bell Tower or Drum Tower in Xian. In Old China Bell Towers were rung in the morning and then at 7pm. This was to signify the work day. The drums were banged every 2 hours.I forget what this is, but it looked cool at night.
Our last day in Xian Ben and I went to the Terracotta Warriors. They were by far the highlight of the trip. To read more about them, please click me.

For your viewing pleasure.
After that excursion, we took a 20 hour train ride to Shanghai. Quite the experience. Lot's of eating, sleeping, and reading took place.

Here is one shot I snapped from the train. That is a coal plant (not nuclear).Now I am in Shanghai with most of my Temple IMBA'ers. More on Shanghai later, but in short, there is an air about this city that is filled with social and economic excitement.