Suddenly, the skies cleared, and we saw...mushrooms.

For our last night in Xi'an we decided to walk around the wall of the city. Most of the major cities in China were built with enormous protective walls around them, and a few are still standing in part or whole. The one in Xi'an wraps around the entire central part of the city, with big gates to allow traffic and pedestrians through. Its about 40 feet wide and made of solid stone, and probably 2-3 stories tall. Massive. We wanted to bike ride around the top but because of the rain they had locked up all the bikes, so we walked. The one advantage of the rain was it had cleared out the smog slightly. It was nearly sunset, so the sky was starting to show some color, and the view from the top was really nice. The first thing I saw when I looked off into the distance was a giant mushroom cloud of pollution belching from a factory on the horizon. A couple in front of us stopped to take each other's pictures. "Look honey! Get a picture of me with that mushroom cloud!" Then behind me I noticed a rainbow peeking out from behind the smog. What the skies in Xi'an lack in beauty they certainly make up for in absurdity.