days 67-70: xi'an

The train to Xi'an was a long one on the way up there. Alex and I pimped out our Chinese-speaking companion to flirt with the conductor to get us some sleepers. And it worked! So the 12 hour ride wasn't so bad going up there. I was glad to get out of sitting on benches. We arrived in Xi'an around 7 in the morning and went straight to the Xiangzimen International Hostel. It looked really nice and the people spoke very good English, but they made us buy an extra bed and wouldn't let us just rent the 3 beds we needed, which was a little weird.

That morning, I brushed my teeth and went out to the tour group going to the Terracotta Warriors. Before the Terracotta Army, we stopped by the Danpo village, a village of ancient Chinese that dates back to 6,000 years ago. Then finally we got to see the Terracotta Army! There were rows and rows of life sized terracotta soldiers, archers, generals and horses lined up in perfect formations. When they built the underground caverns of terracotta people, the emperor killed every artist, construction worker, and anyone else that had anything to do with building the tomb, as well as their friends and families. The total number of people killed making it was over 700,000. I had no idea that happened.

That night, I got a traditional Chinese massage. Not knowing what a Chinese massage was exactly, the guy ended standing on my back and popping every bone he could. At one point he was pulling my hair, and that bit really hurt. At the end it was all good and (kind of) relaxing. The next morning, we slept in and shopped around the Muslim Quarter. The market was fun and filled with all this weird food. My favorite Xi'an food was this pancake filled with hot veggies and other stuff I have no idea what it was, but it tasted good.

The train ride back to Beijing was probably the worst train ride I will ever have. We couldn't get sleepers this time so I was already expecting a 12 hour train ride on a bench where they don't turn off the music or lights all night. The people also spit on the floor and kids just squat and take a shit there on the floor. That's really gross even not in an enclosed space. That night it was raining and the tracks were flooded so we spent a few hours waiting for the rain to be siphoned off the tracks, which in total took 9 hours. I couldn't wait to get off that train.

But overall, Xi'an was good. :)