Xi'an

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So, this is my entry on Xi'an: our train from Beijing to Xi'an was a hard sleeper train, which meant that instead of 4 beds per room, it was 6 beds per room, and the amount of room you get is significantly less...but, I still slept, even if it wasn't as long as I wanted. The beds weren't as soft (appropriately named hard sleeper), and there were three other people in our room that we didn't know, but it was definitely a good experience.

We arrived in Xi'an the next day, and found out that the hostel we were going to stay at was actually closing that day, and so they obviously weren't able to give us our room. We found another hostel called the Ancient Street Youth Hostel, and it actually turned out to be really nice. It was definitely the nicest hostel we have stayed in so far. When we got off the train, there was this guy there with a small minivan, and he agreed to be our chaffeur for the whole day for only 300 yuan (about $9 USD each). So, we got in his little minivan and started on our adventure in Xi'an. First, our "tour guide" took us to this tourist trap where you could buy these miniature terra cotta soldiers. One of the people in our group fell for it, but the rest of us stayed strong and waited until we got to the real Terra Cotta soldiers to buy souvenirs.

Then, we went to the real Terra Cotta Soldiers. It was pretty amazing, and it was really cool to see how they restored some of the areas of the tomb. The Terra Cotta Soldiers guard the tomb of one of the emperors of China. It was built by about 170,000 people. A lot of the servants were killed after it was finished because the emperor didn't want them to tell other people where the tomb was. The tomb and all of the soldiers were built to protect the emperor in his after life. Supposedly there is a whole other section of the tomb which hasn't been uncovered with huge amounts of treasure and rivers of mercury. I don't know how true this is, but it makes for a good story. It is amazing how one man could order such a huge scale project just for his afterlife.

Next, we went to the Big Wild Good Pagoda, which is supposedly the oldest wooden structure in the world. It was built in the 7th century, and is still used today! We didn't get to go inside because there was some construction work. They told us that the earthquake was felt a little bit in Xi'an, and it moved the pagoda over by a very small amount, so they were fixing it. It was nice to just sit outside and enjoy the day, even though Xi'an is REALLY hot.

After the Pagoda, we went back to the hostel and relaxed there for a while. We grabbed a little bit to eat on our search for buying a towel since the hostel didn't have any. We came back to the hostel and begged them again for a towel, and it turned out they have one, so three of us had to share it. It felt SO good to take a shower after walking around Xi'an for the day!

We decided to take it easy the next day. We woke up around 8:00 and headed for the train station so that we could switch our train to a faster train. The train ticket we initally got left at 5:30 PM and got to Shanghai at 1:30 Pm the next day! 20 hours in a train wasn't going to cut it. We finally all got tickets on this train that left at 9:30 PM and arrived at 11:30 AM the next day, which was a lot better. The train stations around here are just crazy. There are SO many people trying to get tickets or refund tickets or exchange tickets, and there is always a HUGE crowd sitting on the ground waiting for their train to leave. Not the most organized system.

Once we had our tickets, we went to the Great Mosque, which wasn't too different from any other gardens we have been to besides the huge amounts of shops outside. There are streets and streets of souvenirs and all kinds of things you can buy. I got a pair of sunglasses for 20 yuan that are "adidas" brand, although I only bought them because it was just so bright outside. It is really crazy how the people who sell these things try to rip you off because they have put fake logos on the products.

After shopping for a while and getting a foot massage, we took a bike ride along the Xi'an city wall! This was definitely the coolest thing we did in Xi'an. It was so fun to get to ride a bike, and it was really great to be able to see basically all of Xi'an in a very general way. The breeze on top of the wall and the breeze just from how fast the bike was going felt REALLY good, and that made the whole bike ride really enjoyable. The wall was pretty bumpy, but it was really fun to try to dodge the pot holes and we had some fun ups and downs on our bikes.

We finished riding around the city wall at about 7:00, and I was able to go meet a friend from home for dinner. He has been in Xi'an for about 7 weeks working with his Public Health masters program here. He went on his mission to Taiwan, so he knows Chinese pretty good. It was really fun to see him, and he took us to this really great place to eat. The noodles were SO good! We had this great bread and meat sandwich, too. I think the Chinese food in Xi'an is the best Chinese food I have had. Everywhere we went was really good. Even the random places we just walked into.

After eating dinner, we headed over to the train station, and got into our soft sleeper back to Shanghai. I slept from about midnight to 11:30. I didn't realize I was sleeping so late, but I think my body needed it after a whirlwind China adventure.

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