A short walk around Xian

As many of you know, I travel quite a bit for work, but I rarely have any time to explore. It's all work and no play, usually.. For some reason or another I had a long morning free last weekend in Xian, a big ol' city southwest of Beijing.

Xian is one of the oldest cities in Chinese hisory. You wouldn't know this by looking at it because honestly, it looks like every other Chinese city. Just outside the city there are a lot of ancient ruins, the famous Terracotta warriors and a few monuments worth noting, but I didn't have time for anything except an hour long stroll around a section the city wall built in 1370. It was quite a hazy day and I could barely see anything in the distance. I'll get back to Xian one day and check out some more things.

Quite possibly the ugliest couch ever..

Last weekend I was working at a university in Dalian when I discovered the couch in the room I had to work in all day. I can only imagine what was going through some one's head when they decided to take on this piece of furniture. It has the resistance of a log and it's slick, possibly finished in vinyl.

I might be crazy, but this building looks like it has problems

On my way to the gym this morning I noticed this building that appears to have some structural inconsistency. I'm no architect, but comparing the building on the right to it's twin on the left leads me to believe that it may have some serious problems. If you follow it from the bottom to the top and compare the amount of space between the two buildings as you get to the top you can see what I'm talking about. Well, I hope I'm wrong.