Unfortunately, our time in Beijing has come to an end, but I have already had a great time in Xi’an touring the drum tower and the Muslim street. Despite the long train ride, I was ready to move on from Beijing and start the next chapter of my trip to China. Xi’an was the capital of 13 different dynasties throughout Chinese history, which makes visiting this city all the more fascinating. I think that it’s incredible that one of the younger historic sites in Xi’an is so much older than even the most important American monuments and documents such as the constitution, declaration of independence, and the liberty bell. It was also quite interesting to see the bell tower from afar and how it was built so recently after the drum tower and in such physical proximity. Cindy also taught us about how the drums were hit 81 times to honor the empress. Later, we went to our first dinner in Xi’an; I thought that this was either my favorite or second favorite dinner so far because of the vast assortment of dumplings that we were able to try. Personally, I find dumplings to be my favorite Chinese dish, so getting to try a wide variety of these dumplings was more than ideal. Additionally, I liked how they had water bottles to give out for only a small price. After dinner, we went to the Muslim street, which I hope to return to later in order to try some authentic food. The street seemed to go on forever with tens of street vendors selling mostly food. Although at first the wide variety of options to eat seemed slightly overwhelming, I think that I want to try the fried squid the most. Xi’an has already proven to be rich in culture, and I look forward to playing basketball tomorrow with some of the children as well as later on viewing the terracotta warriors.