Xián

After several games of Farkle, waking up to a strange Chinese man peering down at my face, and having to sleep in a different section of the train than Tommy, we arrive in Xián. Once again we have survived a smokey, cramped night on a hard-sleeper. Xián is a lot like Pingyao in the fact that it still contains aspects of ancient arcitecture, has a bell tower, a drum tower, and a large wall surrounding the city. It is also like Beijing and Shanghai, with its large population, busy streets, and big buildings. Once again we see a large number of vendors and our faith in "you can buy anything to eat on a stick" is restored. The Muslim Quarter is an interesting area that houses the Great Mosque and several other, smaller mosques. All the mosques, even the Great one, are not very visible from the street and seem to be hidden throughout the Muslim Quarter. There are also a lot of food vendors, where I was able to find, once again, some awesome steamed buns. Tommy found some delicious potatoes that looked to be roasted to perfection. As the cook put the bowl down in front of Tommy, we were both surprised by the jiggling motion the potatoes made as the bowl hit the table. As soon as Tommy took a bite, it was confirmed that he was not eating potatoes. He was in fact eating stir-fried spicy cubes of bean paste, which basically looked like transparent cubes of jello. We found several other food items made of bean - a green bean cake and a tasty looking treat that I thought would be chocolate, but turned out to be rice with dark bean paste. After this, I was done with the food tastings for a while.

WALMART IN CHINA
Tommy and I discovered a Walmart listed on the map of Xián that our hostel provided. We quickly found the large Walmart sign and proceeded to follow sign after sign, arrow after arrow, leading us in circles until we finally found the store, no where near the initial sign or the icon on the map. I cannot compare the prices of large bags of MSG, but for the rest - if you thought an American Walmart was cheap, you should check out Chinese Walmart!! Tommy and I got several bags full of juice, beer, water, and food for $11. We were very excited.

TERRACOTTA WARRIORS
The next day, Tommy and I set out to visit the Terracotta Warriors Museum with a tour group from our hostel. Outside of the museum, there is a gift shop where you can meet the man who discovered the Terracotta Warriors. He use to be a farmer, but has now been given the job of sitting inside at a desk all day signing books bought in the gift shop. By the look on his face, he is rethinking his decision of disclosing his discovery to others. The Terracotta Warriors and Horses are life size and colorless replicas of the warriors, horses, and chariots back in the day (the original colors quickly disappeared from the warriors and horses once unearthed) . It is an incredible excavation site and the process of excavating the warriors and horses is still ongoing. They are working on reconstructing those they excavate. It takes one person one year to restore one warrior. All of the warriors excavated differ slightly from one another, so no two warriors are the same, not even their faces. It was incredible to see all of the warriors and horses lined up in the vast pit. It is quite an experience.

That night we go for a short run around the city. Running on the streets of Xián makes you feel like you are running from someone, since you have to dodge people, jump out of the way of bikes carrying packages the size of refrigerators, steer clear of rabid looking dogs, get out of the way of vendors and their carts, etc. We found our way to the outside of the wall, which has a thin park that wraps around it. Many people come here to practice Tai Chi, meditate, jog, dance, walk backwards, and yell. This was a great people watching area.

The next day, Tommy and I decide we want to go for another run, but somewhere less crowded. We opt to pay the small fee and head up on top of the wall. The wall that surrounds Xián is 13m high and 13 km long. We have a wonderful jog around the wall, where we can see people flying kites, playing in the parks, and going on with daily life. The air is a little tough on the body, between the dry air and the smog. My head started to throb and my throat swelled up thick for the next day. Good luck to all those athletes heading to Beijing! After our run, we headed to the Big Goose Pagoda by bus.


TIBETAN RIOTS CHANGE PLANS
Our last day in Xián, we checked out and sat in the hostel lobby without a plan of where to go next. The riots in Llasa, along with the spreading unrest throughout China, made us reevaluate our plans. We had planned on heading west to Xiahe, which is not actually in Tibet, but has a large Tibetan population. We had heard that the government was not allowing foreigners into this town, along with several other towns we were thinking of heading to. Since all the media was being strictly censored, we were not sure of exactly what towns to the southwest we could head to.

So after a period of indecision due to this uncertain circumstance, our plan of attack was to head to south to Luoyang, Yichang, and Fenghuang. This route was the next most western train line after the one we were origanially planning on taking. This route was not on the Tiebian plateau and appeared to be safely away from the expanding Tibetan protests. Standing in the rain, we get train tickets for the first train out of Xián and run back to the hostel to get our bags. It is pouring rain and we are turned down by every cab driver we asked to take us to the train station. A girl nearby tells us to hop on bus 300 and that will take us to the train station. Tommy and I run for the bus, hop on, and ride out of town towards the station.

After 10 minutes on the bus, we soon take a turn and begin to head in the wrong direction, away from the train station. When shown the word "train station", the ticket attendant motions for us to get off the bus where we are and pointed in the direction of the station. We hop off the bus and start running down the street in the direction of the train station. After a few moments of not being sure if we would make it in time or not and not being able to determire where any of the busses passing us were going, we flag down another bus and point in our book to the word "train station" and the driver motions for us to get on. Two stops later, the bus driver motions for us to get off. We are not at the station, but we think that we can see it. The train will leave in less than 15 minutes. We run until we get to the station and push our way through the mass of people waiting for other trains until we get to ours. The whistle is blowing and our train is just about to take off. We jump on the train and it begins to move. Soaking wet and out of breath, we have made it!