Hong Kong and Xian

I was in HK 22 years ago (gulp) visiting my sister, Clarissa - and this time got Kerry to take a picture of me leaning on the railing on the Peak in exactly the spot (I think) where Clarissa took a picture of me in 1987. I look exactly the same, of course, but HK has a thousand new gleaming major buildings and half a dozen new transportation systems, and is even more hyperkinetic and stunning to look at than before. Astonishing to be in Kowloon or Central, which make Manhattan seem like a village, and then after a half hour ferry ride be walking up a hill on Lantau, which (apart from a bronze Buddha the size of a three-story house) could be in Scotland.

Up at 5 AM to get the plane this morning; a long first exploratory walk around Xian this afternoon; and so to bed in a friendly if noisy hostel on a narrow lane right under Xian's vast and ancient outer wall.