tarboat's photos with the keyword: shaanxi

The reaction of the Chinese joggers on the City Wall at Xi'an is typical behaviour when they see a western photographer. I was just trying to capture the sheer scale of this structure which I never managed to walk completely around. Perhaps I should have hired a bike. When Zhu Yuanzhang, the first Emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), captured Huizhou, a hermit named Zhu Sheng admonished him that he should 'built high walls, store abundant food supplies and take time to be an Emperor,' so that he could fortify the city and unify the other states. After the establishment of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang followed his advice and began to enlarge the wall built initially during the old Tang Dynasty (618 - 907), forming today's scale of Xi'an City Wall. After the extension, the wall now stands 12 metres (40 feet) tall, 12-14 metres (40-46 feet) wide at the top and 15-18 metres (50-60 feet) thick at the bottom. It covers 13.7 kilometres (8.5 miles) in length with a deep moat surrounding it. Every 120 metres, there is a rampart which extends out from the main wall.

Speculative apartment developments such as these at Xian are typical of modern China. A massive building boom has caused every city to be surrounded by tower blocks built on borrowed money. The problem is that there are far more apartments than buyers/renters and vast numbers stand empty whilst yet more are built nearby. I can only see this ending in some sort of financial collapse in the building industry in China. For now it provides employment for thousands, probably millions.

This water tower in Xian was once one of the tallest buildings in the city. It now stands in the shadow of the massed apartment blocks. Seen from the city walls.

Muslim night market down the back lanes of Xian. The kebab stall was in full production.

A grab shot from the bus on the way back from seeing the terracotta warriors. This power station was built in two stages - 250 MW in two 125 MW units coming on line during 2003, and then two 300 MW units in 2008. The earlier units with their two smaller cooling towers are off to the right and not visible here. It is operated by the Datang Shaanxi Power Generation Co.