English: Photo taken from second story of the wooden guard house atop the outer gate of the Xi'an, China, city wall. Photo taken Richard Chambers, AAA Yangtze Sampler tour, May 2004.

This photo was taken while standing in a coner of the balcony of the guardhouse second floor which overlooks the courtyard between the inner and outer gate. The balcony was quite narrow and the photographer standing around 1.9 meters felt a touch of claustrophobia. The ground floor, containing a couple of souvenir displays and open shops with clerks, had a tall ceiling which appeared to be some five or six meters. A staircase went up to the second story whose ceiling was only about 2 meters. With a post and lintel construction with exposed beams, the photographer was continually ducking his head on the walk across the large open floor space to the doorway onto the balcony.

See photo taken inside guardhouse standing on second story near stairwell looking towards balcony over courtyard. The photographer was standing when taking this photograph and you can see how low the ceiling and beams are.

See photo taken standing on balcony of second story of guardhouse showing the balcony interior which gives a feel for how narrow and closed in the balcony was.

See photo taken standing in the inner gate looking towards the outer gate across the courtyard to see an interior view of the Xi'an city wall's outer gate with the wooden guardhouse.

See also photo taken standing in the inner gate looking towards the Bell Tower inside the city wall.