Shanghai Shenanigans: When in China:: Part 2

Xi'an 西安

When we left off we had just hoped on the train 火车 with minutes to spare. We walk onto the car with the expectation of having a soft sleeper. A soft sleeper is a private room with four bunks and a door. This is not what we got. Instead we had a hard sleeper which is a car full of bunks and people. The bunks are 3 high and there are probably 60 total bunks in one car. We laughed harder in the first 10 minutes of that train ride than we had all trip. We had 14 hours to spend with 56 Chinese passengers and no privacy. We made the best of it... for 15 minutes until the lights went off and it was apparently bed time. Luckily none of us had a top bunk. Emily and I were in the middle bunks and Lucy and Lauren lucked out on the bottom. The girl above me texted all night long without putting it on silent and the man above Emily talked until about midnight and then groaned in his sleep all night. "It is an experience" we kept telling ourselves.

Not sure what we got ourselves into.

This shows the 3 high bunks.

The night morning we woke up around 7am since we had to go to bed at 9:30pm. We were somewhere in the countryside with 5 hours to go. Luckily we brought snacks and tea to keep us occupied. The bathroom on the train was quite disgusting to we decided to wait and use the one at the train station. Bad idea. We barely walked through the door at the train station and turned around and walked right back out. There was no way! We took a van to our hostel which again was amazing, even better than the first! Xiangzimen 湘子门 had traditional architecture with courtyards a restaurant and a bar. All the walls had originally been painted white and then all the travelers who say there had written messages to the world on those same walls. We had to leave our mark as well. As I mentioned in the first post, we had gotten so used to being called "waiguoren 外国人" that we barely responded to our own names anymore, so that is what we wrote on the wall right outside our room. Again we lucked out with a four bunk private room with really comfy beds and a mirror and lockers. We hadn't been in the hostel for 10 minutes before jumping in the shower, train rides can really make you feel disgusting. We went for lunch in the Muslim Quarter and then in search of a Starbucks. Coffee was necessary after the night on the train. The reason we planned part of our trip to Xi'an is because Lucy's mom and grandma are on an Chinese tour and were going to be in Xi'an during our vacation. After Starbucks we got a taxi to the Shangri-la Hotel to surprise her mom. We knew when the plane landed but we didn't know if the tour had things planned before checking in at the hotel, so we waited in the lounge at the hotel. Luxury felt nice. We went to dinner with her mom and then headed for home.

Inside Xiangzimen Youth Hostel

Our room

We left our mark!
(Note: Noah is a joke/fictional character on our program, not an actual participant)

The next morning we had another excursion planned. We were fortunate to have our hostel plan everything for us and get us discounts with our ECNU student ID cards! We started the morning with laundry and a breakfast that topped the one from the first hostel!! Then we were off to see the Terra-Cotta Army 兵马俑. It was truly fascinating 了不起！We started off at the factory where they make duplicates to sell to tourists with the same local clay that they used to make the originals 2000 years ago. Many of the soldiers are still in the process of excavation, but there are nearly 8000 total and no two soldiers are the same. It was an awesome thing to see and just unbelievable.

Me as a Terra-Cotta soldier.

The largest pit holding the most fully constructed soldiers

Some of the finished soldiers

Soldiers in the process of excavation

I was loving it!

More Chinese friends.

The only other thing to see in Xi'an is the city wall. This is a wall that was built around the city 600 years ago to protect the emperor. The wall is awesome and the thing to do it to bike along the entire wall, but we decided to be lazy and just walk around on top of it before heading for our 18 course jaozi 饺子 meal. Jiaozi are dumplings filled with everything from meat/fish to veggies to any combination you can imagine. The restaurant we went to was known for making their jiaozi into all shapes sizes and colors, so we had to try it out. It was a very filling and tasty meal and a great way to spend our last night in Xi'an. We went back to the hostel to get a drink and play some card games. Lucy and I each ordered a Mai Tai which are supposed to be fruity cocktails, instead we were served some sort of milk cocktail that we decided to leave behind. We met the hostel manager who gave himself the English name of Jim Bean. After visiting and beating Lucy at every card game known to man, we packed our bags and went to bed.

The next morning we would be heading for the last destination of our trip, Sanya 三亚, and we were more than excited!