The Xi’an City Wall is the most complete city wall that has survived China’s long history. It     1     (build) originally to protect the city     2     the Tang dynasty and has now been completely restored (修复). It is possible       3     (walk) or bike the entire 14 kilometers.

We accessed the wall through the South Gate. The wall is 12 meters high and from here you can see streams of people moving inside and outside the City Wall.

After     4     (spend) some time looking at all the defensive equipment at the wall, we decided it was time for some action and what     5     (good) than to ride on a piece of history!

We     6     (hire) our bikes from the rental place at the South Gate. My bike was old and shaky     7     did the job. It took us about 3 hours to go all     8     way around the Xi’an City Wall. Supposedly you can do it in two hours, but we stopped at the different gates and     9     (watchtower) to take pictures or just to watch the local people going about their     10     (day) routines.

My cousin and I took a trip by rail across Canada from west to east. Before starting out, we spent a couple of days in Vancouver, admiring the     1    (sight). Then we arose early to take the train to Lake Louise, passing through the Canadian Rockies.     2    (see) from the train window, the mountains and forests looked     3    (mass). We spent the night near the lake, where the blue water literally took our breath away,     4     headed to Jasper the next morning. The beautiful scenery convinced us it was the most awesome journey we     5    (take). From Jasper, we boarded the train bound     6     Toronto. One of our first stops was in Edmonton, which     7     (be) home to many shopping malls. We never anticipated seeing such an open country until the train headed across the Great Prairie.     8     amazed us most were a bunch of farms covering two wheat- growing provinces. The train thundered on, through the     9    (roll) hills in Ontario. It was     10    (true) enjoyable to watch the red maple leaves outside the window. After four days, we reached Toronto.