Dude in Xiahe

Hello Peeps!!

Well, as you can see I am doing well with the emails now and keeping you peeps up to date. After a three day trip to Xi'an (Shee-An) I am in Xiahe now in the western part of China, near Tibet..

Thanks to those of you who replied to my last email and sorry that I could not get back to you all..

Anywhoo, what have I been upto over the past week??? Well here goes...

25th July Beijing:
I take the 17:11 T55 train from Beijing (150 Yuan, 1pound=15yuan) and arrive in Xi'an at 06:30 the next day. The train ride itself was an experience. I should mention here that there are a lot of Chinese people (over 1.2 billion) and at any one there are a lot of them travelling. Chinese people hate queing, in the shops, restaurants, trains busses - you should see the clash of people in the underground in Beijing, even I got a few elbows to the back and ribs, but I dished out a few as well..


I took my train from Beijing west railway station. This is an immense station much bigger than anythiung I have seen in my life. There are so many entrances, so ,many tocket offices so many trains - its still not enough - even though there are 4 major station serving Beijing!

After a long walk I get to my train and seat. I could not find a sleeper ticket (there are cabins which sleep four peoeple on a nice soft bed, there are also cheaper cabins which sleep four on a hard bed) Luckly for me I only managed to get a hard seat ticket as I would have to wait one week for sleepers (oh my lovely cheeks!) So i turn up - the only foreigner I saw in the carriage - to find out a woman is on my seat becasue somebody else has taken her seat to play cards! Que the Chinese getting all worked up with a carriage conferance on where I should sit with me wathching and trying hard not to laugh. Anyway, in the end they ask me to sit on another seat next to a granny, her daugter and the grandson - all on two seats and with me squished between the granny and the window. To my releif, after about 4 hours of the granny sleeping on my shoulder, she got up and put the grandson on the seat and sat on the floor.

Anywhoo, the hard seat is not what you imagine, there is a thin soft covering of cuishin and thats no problem. The problem is that the back of the seat is at 90degrees to the seat, its impossible to sleep.

So I get to Xi'an on 26th July at 06:30, catching the bus 603 to my hostel (Shuyuan Youth Hostel) and once i get there i realise why the dorm room that i booked was only for 20Yuan It is in the basement and so damp and smelly that I pay the extra 30Yuan and go into one of the better dorm. The hostel itself is amazing, an old Chinese house with three seperate open air courtyards, great character. I spend the day visiting the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, walking past the Bell Tower and Drum Tower and the Muslim quarter. The bell was rund to signify dawn and the drum at dusk in the old days.

The next day I wake up early and go to see the Arm of Terracotta Warriors - the actual reason for the trip to this city. This is an army of 6000 warriors made of terracotta by Emporor Qin Shi Huang and buried in huge underground chambers near his tomb - amsolutely amazing. I spend the rest of the day walking aorung the Muslim quarter again and checking out a huge 7 storey shopping mall. I had to buy a new towel as one of the devious bastards staying in my dorm stole my lovely blue light soft travel towel :( ..

So after three nights of Xi'an, I hit the roads again following my trusty Lonely Planet Guide and head to Xiahe in the Gansu province. This was originally Tibet and the village itself speaks only Tibetan... I take the 22:26 K119 train from Xi'an (94Yuan) and get to Lanzhou at 06:00am the next morning and after a short ride to the bus station by taxi , I take a four hour bus (45Yuan) to Xiahe through the lovely lush green mountains to Xiahe..

More about Xiahe and my next destination next time peeps as even I am surprised by the length of this email :P Also, you need to know about some of the funny stuff, the whole toilet experience, the smells, the men rolling up their T-shirts, Chinglish etc...

Hope you are all well and enjoying whatever you are doing...

OVER AND OUT!!
xxx

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