I wanted to see something new before I left China. But with so little time available I had to find something close to my hotel. So I went to see the Beidu Iron Tower (Built c. 1590 – Ming dynasty)
​Didi dropped me off near the site, but the gate next to the street seemed securely locked. This wouldn’t have been the first time I arrived somewhere “after hours”!
​I saw a man coming out of a nearby building. In answer to my question her gestured toward a gate at the adjoining building and told me to just push on the gate. Well, although this new gate looked very securely locked, all it took was a little push to open it and go inside. Then another ” locked” gate seemed to prevent getting to the area of the tower. Well, I pushed and pulled, and that gate magically opened too!
Cool!

This Iron Tower is certainly not the #1attraction in the Xi’an area, but I thought it was pretty interesting (especially after the “Iron Pagoda” in Kaifeng that wasn’t really iron!)

It looked as is on a good day, you might even be able to get inside the tower and perhaps climb up.
But the gate around the base truly was locked during my visit… not just “pretend locked”!

So I enjoyed looking around the outside, and then ordered another car from Didi to take me back to the hotel.🙂👍