Saturday (the 14th) we woke up early (seeing a pattern here) for the less than 2 hour flight to Xi'an from Beijing. We mostly slept on the flight still trying to recover from the Great Day at the Great Wall back on day 1. It was an hour taxi ride from the airport to our hotel within the Xi'an city walls. We checked in, and went out on foot to find a place to eat lunch. We thought there was a pizza place down the street, but ended up eating at the food court in the ginormous mall. It was an interesting collection of food items we sampled, mostly pretty good. Right next to our table, was a bumper car place. The kids really wanted to try it out, so who are we to deny a good time on vacation? (I must include a reminder that, similar to India, OSHA doesn't live here.) They all jumped into their own cars, sans seatbelts (or with very weak attempts) and proceeded to inflict all sorts of minor brain injuries on each other. On three separate occasions in the seemingly hour long ride, little D, bumped his head so hard as to scream out and cry. The worker dude would crawl into his car and comfort him until he stopped and then keep going. After the third one, which was pretty brutal - would have sent a lesser 6 year old to the hospital with whiplash - I exercised my motherly duty and stopped his car indicating he should get out of the car. He revolted through his sobbing and insisted he keep driving. What was I thinking? How dare I try to cut his ride shorter than everyone else's?
After bumper cars we started our trek to the cutest little shopping area called Shuyuanmen. I was a blustery, rainy day and we ended up buying 10 umbrellas for the walk, for ridiculously cheap. I really enjoyed the ambiance of this adorable area, despite the rain. It was full of art, souvenirs, and antiques. We made a quick stop at the Beilin museum - a museum of stone sculptures which were very impressive, and then began the death march back to the hotel.
For dinner, we ate at a Muslim restaurant, that specialized in a strange pork soupy, noodle concoction, that was served over flat bread we broke up into tiny pieces ourselves. It was probably our most interesting meal on this trip.
After dinner, Sara, Allison and I braved the very crowded night market across the street from the hotel. We figured out it was a fish/meat market by day, and a trinket, jewelry, fake bag market by night. It was very entertaining, and I'm discovering how much I enjoy the whole Asia market scene.
Beijing airport at 0'dark thirty in the morning.
Bumper cars - Action Z
D - before 3rd concussion
Live models in the window
Shuyuanmen - the fabulous cobbled shopping street
At the museum, very pretty gardens
Hide and seek in the historic hitching posts
Watchtower on the wall
Monk on the phone - Hello mom?" 
D falling asleep at our interesting Muslim dinner
Creatures at the night market - goldfish, bunnies, turtles and lizards
City walls of Xi'an - these walls form a giant rectangle that is flat on top. We had originally planned to take a bike ride tour around the entire wall, but the rain prevented that. We were a little disappointed by that, but really enjoyed the rest of Xi'an.
