I’m visiting the William Lindesay family in China for two weeks as they take me to points all along the entire Great Wall. You can read the backstory at my website or here on my blog along with all my posts while in China.

Beijing, China
Saturday, September 26, 2026
11:20 PM

Today was our last in Xi’an. It ended up being a “day off” as we cancelled the plan to tour the Shaanxi History Museum. This is a national holiday in China, the Mid-Autumn Festival Holiday. William and Qi anticipated the museum would be too crowded, so decided against going. Next time!

As an alternative, William and Qi suggested driving around and visiting the Xi’an city wall — walls are a thing in China — but we opted to sleep in a bit and have a slow morning. Everyone met up for breakfast at 8:30.

After breakfast and before packing to check out, David and I walked around the hotel grounds. This is actually a complex of several hotels all operated by Sofitel.

We have been staying in the center hotel, the Sofitel Legend People’s Grand Hotel (building “A” on the site plan above). This has been unquestionably the nicest hotel I’ve ever stayed at! It has quite a distinguished history including guests such as French President François Mitterrand and Queen Elizabeth. And now us, of course!

William & Qi felt that finishing out these two weeks in luxury would be nice. I certainly agree! As it turns out, from William’s account, in American dollars it sounds like the cost has been pretty reasonable.

David and I found and enjoyed a very pleasant courtyard right behind our building on the hotel grounds.

We checked out of the People’s Grand Hotel at Noon at which point it was time to bid farewell to Tommy and Jesse. As we move on to Beijing they’re staying behind in Xi’an to enjoy the national holiday and Jesse is also taking some vacation. Tommy certainly deserves some time off.

Return to Beijing

The flight from Xi’an back to Beijing was about two hours, landing at 5:30 PM. We got a ride to the Beijing Hilton where Qi helped us check in. She and William then headed home while David and I got dinner and settled in for our last night in China. We take off for home tomorrow night.

Next… Home Bound

Tomorrow is Day 14, our last in China. We’ll be picked up from the hotel at 10:30 AM for a ride to William and Qi’s house. There William plans to interview me on camera about our mother and her life, and how her situation may have contributed to our grandfather being forgotten as a noted world explorer. It’s an interesting story,

Jimmy Lindesay and his wife will host an afternoon gathering at their house before they take us to the airport for our 7:35 PM flight to JFK New York. The next installment in this blog series will probably be posted from Home Sweet Home.

Title image is the Sofitel Legend People’s Grand Hotel in Xi’an, China.