Xian, China 10-8-09

We got off the train and headed outside to look for a lady named Lily holding up a sign with the name of our hostel- Shuyuan. We found her and collected the rest of our hostel group before walking to our shuttle van. Almost immediately, Richard and I met Shelly and Rich, a couple our age from Manchester who are two of the most outgoing people I’ve ever met. As we were walking to the bus, Shelly and I didn’t stop talking and Rich and Richard seemed to get along great too. We realized on the shuttle that we all had the same itinerary for the next week and started making plans.

We got to the hostel and settled in, drank some beers, walked around the town, and ate some local food from a soup shop. On the walk back we passed by a barber shop and Rich and Richard had a proper shave (both hadn’t had a razor shave in months). The ladies in the barber shop did a great job (despite the blood stains on their shirts) and now the guys look like innocent 16 year old boys. J

Back at the hostel we showered up, bought some alcohol, and headed downstairs to the bar with our new friends. Our group of 4 turned into 8 as we met some great people from South America and Europe. We played some card drinking games and somehow 3 times in a row I picked the card which meant to chug my whole drink. Within 5 minutes I was already 3 drinks ahead of everyone! We laughed the whole time and had the best night.

In the morning it was overcast and raining, but Shelly, Rich, Richard, and I decided to rent some bikes and tour around town anyway. We wanted to see the city wall and the Muslim district. So, fully suited up in our rain gear we peddled around Xian in the rain all day. The streets were so small, bicycle buggies and people were everywhere, and the city streets were filled with little shops and soup/dumpling shops. We stopped for some dumplings in the Muslim district and were amazed at how good they were! We rode through the district for a while and it was really astonishing to see so many Chinese Muslims.

We rode through farmers’ markets and side streets and everyone in Xian stared as us. Not only were we westerners, but we were riding on bicycles in the rain, in full rain gear, taking pictures, and laughing the whole time. While riding through a little market, a man yelled out- “HELLO!” We all smiled and yelled back- “HELLO”. Again, the only English word he knew and was so proud to use it. By now I know how to say hello and thank you in Chinese. They seem to help me out okay, but I’m working on learning some more words.

We rode though the streets and through an underground walkway to get to Xian’s Bell Tower. Inside the tower we watched a musical demonstration with traditional dancing and bell chiming; the music played inside this tower was broad casted for the city to hear. After leaving the tower we dropped off the bikes at our hostel, walked around for a bit, had more dumplings (amazing!) and noodle soup, and then called it a night.

The four of us woke up early the next morning and caught an hour long bus to take us to see the Terracotta warriors. The exhibit was pretty extraordinary (proclaimed the 8^th wonder of the world). Over 2000 years ago, 6,000 pottery warriors and horses were made and placed into this 203 foot long and 75 foot wide pit for Emperor Qin Shi Huang. He wanted to rule an empire in his afterlife as well and was buried alongside his clay army.

After seeing the army we headed home and everyone at our hostel got together for a ‘make your own dumplings” lesson. Later on Shelly, Rich, Koby (from Aus), Jay (from Aus), Richard, and I went out for a hot pot dinner. We had a better idea what we were doing this time, but we didn’t expect that when we ordered chicken, they would bring us 16 chicken heads! Rich wound up trying one of them after a bet, but the rest remained untouched. Aside from that, our dinner turned out pretty well.

The next day the four of us (Shelly, Rich, Richard, and I) packed up our bags and got on our 16 hour- hard sleeper train to Chengdu. This was my first time in a hard sleeper and it was rough! The beginning of the ride was fine... the four of us talked and ate some instant noodle soup. But around 12:00am when it was bedtime, it was impossible to sleep. In our 6 bunked-bed tiny room, I was on the top bunk (3^rd up) and the guy next to me on the 3^rd bunk was snoring, the guy under me was snoring, and the guy across from me on the 2^nd bunk was snoring. For more than 2 hours I laid in bed with my headphones on listening to loud relaxing music trying to block out the noise…no luck. ! I got up around 3am to use the restroom (a tiny-tiny room with a hole in the floor, no toilet paper, no sink... nothing) and on the way back was searching for another bed to switch into. From the bathroom, on the other side of the train section, I could hear my bunkmates snoring! I noticed that the two highest beds in Shelly and Rich’s room were free (there are no doors on any of the hard sleeper rooms). I climbed up to the third bed and for the first time in hours barely heard any noise. It was amazing. I climbed back down to check on Richard who was in the snoring room. He was wide awake and hadn’t been able to sleep for hours either. I told him about my discovery and we migrated to the top bunks and were finally able to sleep. Hmm... maybe next time I’ll stick to a soft sleeper?

(Shelly in the hard sleeper)

Time to explore Chengdu..