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Published: March 22nd 2012
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We wake up to an alarm. This is the first time in days that we’ve had to be up at a certain time so we can get to Xi'an (Western Peace). Our interpreter, Melody, arrives at our apartment on time. We take a taxi to the Luoyang Lanzhou-Shanghai rail line station. The building is expansive, modern and bright. It’s also COLD. Nobody believes in central heat around here including the train station. After locating our gate and track, we head to the toilet for a pit stop. Although it’s Eastern-style, the facility is spotless. I haven’t seen anything this clean since we arrived or for that matter in the U.S.
Heading down to the train platform, everyone is ordered by arrows glued onto the ground predicting where the train cars will stop. The train pulls up and people file neatly into the cars and to their assigned seats. The car is spacious and also very clean. It’s more comfortable than any airplane. The passengers are mostly upper-class business men with an occasional family sprinkled in-between.
Just like the China East flight we took at the beginning of our journey, the train leaves exactly on-time and regardless of who is
standing or seated. The train is quiet and seems to float on the track. We eventually gain speed as the scenery whizzes by. A digital display constantly updates how fast the train is going. The highest number we see on the 90-minute ride is 294 kilometers/hour. We are enamored with the bullet train and enjoy this piece of the trip. I-95 should have a bullet train built right on top of it as the main mode of transport along the states’ East coast.
The train attendant pushes a snacks and drinks cart down the aisle. Everything is marked high and almost no one takes refreshment. The rural landscape is interesting with sculpted fields of crops and small clusters of housing. Occasionally there are a few high-rises no one is occupying and some planned roads that no one is using. Just because the government plans communities, it doesn’t mean people actually move into them.
Once we arrive at the planned station stop, the metro (subway) is our next mode of transport. Our interpreter is excited that the stations are connected as she helps us buy metro cards. The metro platform has a glass barrier to protect passengers from falling
onto the tracks. The doors slide open and we board a car very similar to subways we have in the USA. There is a helpful map of the metro stops with lights indicating at all times where we are on the track.
We successfully exit the metro. Traversing a confusing configuration of tunnels, we realize that the main pedestrian tunnel is a circle. We pop out and see a Starbucks. Thinking we are in the right place, we stop to grab a beverage. It’s another clean and well-maintained facility. I get a lemon tea something that is delicious. Julie and our interpreter get coffees. Then we realize that we aren’t quite in the right spot. We head back into the tunnel and pop out in another spot. What do you know? Another Starbucks just like at home. Xi’an is a more sophisticated place than Luoyang. There are more tourists, more upper class pedestrians, nicer cars, cleaner buildings.
Eventually we make it to Hui Street, a famous Muslim shopping district. All three of us girls get “their shop on”. Treasures abound. The shop owners all know English which hampers our bargaining strategy we used when shopping in Old Town
Luoyang. Although the food being sold looks like “street meat”, we take a chance and get some beef noodle soup with broken bread. It comes with a side of pickled garlic cloves and hot sauce. The garlic is supposed to be eaten by hand but this silly tourist puts it in the soup. A man comes over to correct my actions. I try the garlic cold and proceed to break the model he provided and put the cloves back into the soup. Its heavenly nourishment that we hope will not get us sick.
We shop some more and our interpreter starts to warn us that we should move along. However catching a cab to the next planned destination is not so easy. Three cabs refuse to take us. A fourth cab, driven by a woman, takes us. She keeps saying that it is too late to go to the Clay Solders because the bus ride is twice as long as we planned. Our interpreter asks for second and third opinions and all tell us it’s too late. I believe we could have gone anyway. Perhaps it is the standard tourist thing to go to the solders first and Hoy
Street second. Perhaps we just want to shop some more. We end up deciding to bail on the Clay Solders.
Since we’ve already cabbed this far, we check out the Xi’an City Wall (Big Wall) instead. It’s an imposing structure that seems authentic in its perceived age. Getting across the street from where the cab dropped us was a feat within itself. There are no pedestrian cross walks to the tourist site. It seems the only way to get in there is to ride on a tour bus. We chance it by running across the traffic circle going around the entrance like moat. We find it strange that a tourist destination has no pedestrian marked way.
We pay the admittance fee and stroll through a long hall adorn with lanterns. Once inside, there is soft Chinese instrumental music playing. It echoes off the hard stone walls making it sound even more beautiful. We ascend the stairs and find a museum. The second floor is closed so there’s limited viewing of artifacts. There are what seem to be authentic costumes and weapons. Our interpreter has a difficult time with 100s, 1000s, 10000s, and 10000s and the signs have no
Luoyang High Speed Train Station
We find it interesting there are no wood railroad ties or a "third rail" to supply power. English. Let’s just say the stuff looked old. Bicycles are for rent and we consider taking a ride. But the cold, windy weather changes our minds. We continue to stroll around on our tour listening to the music and looking at the views.
Once outside, we decide to go back to Hoy Street so we can finish the shopping we started. We enter the shops from a different street location and get right back into our search for treasures.
Eventually the girls are all shopped out and we enter back into the confusing circular tunnels to find the metro. We are early so we rest for a few minutes in the ice cold station while snacking and sipping drinks. The bullet train is a welcomed site and we eagerly board. Chinese Grandfather has borrowed a car to meet us at the Luoyang train station. He and Chris pick us up and we are ready for dinner. Tonight we have to fend for ourselves. Chris says all the good restaurants are closed so the best options are the America chain restaurants.
Pizza Hut is our choice (McDonald’s, KFC or Pizza Hut). The menu is very different from the
High Speed Train
Roomy and clean inside our train car. USA with some pizzas and a lot of other food. We order a “traditional” (hand-tossed) supreme. What shows up is a pineapple, ham, green pepper & mushroom pizza with a cheese that doesn’t quite taste right. My stomach sends me regrets for the rest of the evening.
Next up, a day with Baby Eris.
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Maya
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I like the photo of the "no cameras" sign . . . . :P