Xi'An: Pagodas, Museums, and Walls

Because I apparently like to torture my family, our final day in Xi'An was chocked full of activities. Just after breakfast, we headed to the Shaanxi History Museum. Located near the museum is the Small Wild Goose Pagoda. Around 15 stories high, it seemed like the perfect structure to make my parents climb early in the morning.

After our morning workout, we explored the area courtyard as well as the museum itself. With over 300,000 artifacts, we could have easily spent the entire day viewing the relics of past dynasties.

But we clearly had not exercised enough, so we decided to scale the Xi'An City Wall. This wall, build in 1370 by the Ming Dynasty to protect the city from intruders, encircles a 14 square kilometer (5.4 square mile) area of the city. The wall is approximately 12 meters (39 ft) in height and 15–18 meters (49–59 ft) wide.

And I made us walk on it.

All of this before we even ate lunch.