day 5 Xi'an part 1

We got a morning flight from Beijing with no problems. Everyone was sorry to say goodbye to Sunny.  We got to Xian  and went directly to th Tang Dynasty Theatre for lunch.  At night there is a dinner show.  The place was nice.  There is so much food everywhere.  The buffet was made out of a dragon dance costume.  We ate too much as usual.  Our guide was Michael, who was pretty good.  We then went to the Wild Goose Pagoda, which is thousands of years old and still occupied by monks who can be seen throughout the property.  Joyce and girls climbed the near 10 story pagoda, which was used in the past to store sacred documents.  We got great pics there.  There is incense burning everywhere, even the hotels.  Most of the places we go are non smoking which is nice. There of course is a gift shop at Pagoda, and also a chance for kids to do caligraphy. Michael was good at it and made each of the girls a nice sign.  From there we went to "city wall" which is basically a wall built around the original city.  You have to pay to get on it, but it is about 2 stories high and very wide and decorated.  We rented bikes and rode for about 30 minutes.  to get around the whole thing would be 2 hours, and it was hot.  Our guide was a real trooper and got a bike for two for he and Maggie because she never learned to ride.  I think she finally wants to now.  The city wall is over 600 years old.