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Published: March 22nd 2006
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Ok, so let's discuss overnight trains in China. There are three options: cattle car (don't remember the proper name for it but basically there are tables to sit at but no beds), hard sleeper (bunks 3 deep on both sides of the car with no compartments), or soft sleeper (compartments with 4 bunks each). I was highly advised to pay the difference and go the soft sleeper route so that is what I did. However, after talking to travelers who had taken hard sleeper, I am not entirely convinced that the extra money I paid was worth it.
First of all, the doors and walls of the compartments are so thin that you can hear everything that's going on outside or next door anyway, thus defeating the purpose of even having a compartment. Second, the compartment idea is further deflated when one is stupid, like myself, and forgets her earplugs in Japan and cannot find any in China and thus gets to spend the whole night listening to not only the loud train and people outside, but in addition, to someone snoring at decibels I didn't think were humanly possible. If that weren't bad enough, LOUD Chinese opera came on
at 7 am and could not be shut off. I truly wanted to hurl myself out of the moving train at that point. I suppose I understand the need to make sure everyone is awake for the 8 am arrival, but believe me, everyone is awake after about 10 seconds of screeching in Chinese. Needless to say, it was a LONG 12 hours and didn't give me much hope for my 17 hour journey to Shanghai that was to take place two nights later!
I had planned on taking a cab to the hostel I was staying at but was pleasantly surprised when through the hordes of people wanting to get me to hotels/taxis/sell me pirated dvd's (come on, it's 8 am and I have loads of stuff and look exhausted. Do I look like I'm interested in illegal dvd's right now?) I see a guy with a sign with my name on it and a hostelling international banner. They picked me up even though I hadn't asked! I was thrilled about that until it turned out that the traffic was so bad it took half an hour to drive the one mile to the hostel and thus I
could've walked it faster. Oh well, what can you do. Luckily it was quite a bit warmer than Beijing and that was key.
Since I had very little time in Xi'an, having arrived on Wednesday morning and leaving Thursday evening for Shanghai, I had no choice but to rally and jump on the trip to the terra cotta warriors which left about 15 minutes after I showed up at the hostel, despite how tired and gross I felt.
The terra cotta warriors are actually about an hour outside of Xi'an and first we were forced to stop at a factory which made imitation warriors. I had thought since we are a bunch of backpackers with limited funds we would avoid this type of ploy for the guide to get commission off of us but no such luck. After we made it clear we really weren't interested, we got underway again and headed out of there to see the real things. Seeing them is in person is quite impressive even though I had found out you cannot get close to them and only view them from a pit above. But like the Great Wall, it truly is amazing to
think of how old these warriors are and how well preserved most of them are. I can only imagine how incredible it would be if they were still painted in the bright colors they once were. Afterwards, we had lunch and visited a history museum which was not impressive after we had seen the warriors and at that point I could barely keep my eyes open.
Once we returned to the hostel, I went to dinner with some people in the Muslim quarter of the city. Xi'an is really interesting in that it both is the oldest surviving walled city in China and in addition has a large Muslim population. It really felt odd walking around and eating Middle Eastern food and seeing Chinese Muslims. But it was that contrast with traditional China that I really liked, not to mention the city itself was beautiful and not as overwhelming as Beijing (though still, it goes to show how populated China is when Xi'an is considered a very small place and has over 6 million people). That night I was once again relegated to listening to loud snoring, this time from a Japanese roommate, until I said screw it and
switched rooms even though I probably wasn't supposed to.
The next day I wandered around some more with Lisa, a very nice Australian girl I had met on the warriors trip the day before. We did our best to bargain and get some souvenirs (and I'm sure probably still got ripped off), admired some high-end electronics and shoes, and could not stop laughing/wondering about little kids with the butts cut out of their pants so they can just, um go, anywhere. (A friend back home had told me that was the only thing she had remembered about her visit to China when she was young and I didn't really take her seriously until I saw it myself). Also began to get annoyed with the insane amount of spitting that Chinese men do. Seriously, it is unreal; you constantly hear people gathering the spit in the back of their throats and they just spit all over the place! Apparently if your cab driver does that you don't have to pay but I found that out after the fact....Though they are trying to shape things up for the Olympics and now are putting signs around that say 'no spitting' because rightfully
so, it is something that stands out in foreigner's minds when they visit China. Hopefully they will do something about the kids with the butts cut out of their pants too, but maybe they are putting all their energy into one endeavor and they've chosen spitting.
Anyway, like Beijing, I could've used another day in Xi'an but no such luck; I was off to Shanghai on Thursday evening. As it turns out, Lisa was headed there too on the same train but she was smart and saved money by going the hard sleeper route so we parted ways on the train with plans to meet in the morning when we arrived and I tried to settle in a car as the only western female surrounded by Chinese men, fun times.
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Reillyboy
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Xi'an was cool...
Hey there, Sorry if this is random. But I was in Xi'an last year around this time and my brother, father and I were stuck in the city for 4 days during spring festival. Your pics and story reminded me so much of our trip. I actually stayed in the same hostel as yourself. I just had to laugh when you mentioned that you got stuck in the 'authentic replica government factory'. We were there too, and now when I see a life sized 'replica' of a terra cotta warrior, I just laugh. I hope you got to see the film at the warrior museum in the circular theatre, it was the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. Have fun in Shanghai, you'll have fun at the Bund, and if you can, I recommend staying at the Captains Hostel in the same area. Cheers, Neil