11/10

Gatehouse, Xi'an city walls

I have been walking around Xi’an. Quite literally, because it is possible to climb up onto the city walls and circumambulate the city. I have come halfway, from the South Gate to the North Gate, and I think that is enough. There is not that much to see bar tenements, building sites and skyscrapers, and I am tired after a rough night on the train. I caught a cold from a taxi driver in Beijing (I had wondered why he kept talking in a whisper and now I know: his throat was painfully sore) and no matter how I tossed and turned, I couldn’t find a comfortable way to lie in my sleeper. Still, it is nice to walk on a fresh though foggy morning. I could have bicycled, but me and bikes do not get along very well. Anyway, Europeans mostly look ridiculous on the Chinese-sized bikes. And I like to walk — there is something elemental in it; it feels to me as though I was made to walk and keep walking.

Xi'an city walls

North Gate, Xi'an city walls

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When I am fantasising about how the world could be better, I imagine that we will not drive cars into towns and watch films but will gather and entertain each other with whatever abilities we have. (If any. I don’t have any ability to entertain, not even to tell funny stories.) So I like it when I am in a hostel and someone gets out their guitar, or starts to sing. Or maybe I just like to drink to the point of not minding what songs they are singing.

Decorative work on doors at the Great Mosque, Xi'an

Great Mosque, Xi'an

Great Mosque, Xi'an