We (Mykhanh and Marytha and I) took an overnight train to Xi'an. I seriously love being on the train in China. There's nothing like it. If you want to experience humanity just go to a train station in China. So many people all going somewhere. Lines are a vague suggestion, its every man for himself in the crush to get on a train. We got hard sleepers, which are seriously a dream. For about $50 US one way, you get a narrow bunk with pillow and comforter with 5 other people in your little cabin (which are open to the corridor), and have a chance of being coherently rested by the time you arrive at your destination. Some other friends were on our same train, so we hung out in their compartment for awhile and played cards.
Without even going to our hostel, we grabbed a bus from the train station and headed to see the terra cotta warriors. They were as cool in person as in every textbook and photo I've seen. There are over 8,000 that have been dug up with more still buried. No two are exactly the same, and there are soldiers with different stances and weaponry as well as horses. Only one has been found completely intact. The internet can tell you more history if you want, but as one of my friends pointed out, these guys are older than Jesus (appr. 200 BC). And they were only found in the 1970s by some peasants digging a well. Crazy.
That afternoon we found our hostel. We tried to find the taxi place, which took a really long time, and then since all the taxi drivers wanted to rip the waiguoren girls off we found a bus that took us there for much less. We then went to meet Mykhanh's friend and she took us the Muslim Quarter, which might have been one of my favorite places I've been in China. She showed us a shop where a SISTER sells Chinese calligraphy and painting. Steven Curtis Chapman was playing. The rest of the stuff in the shopping area was similar to market shopping in Beijing, but much more relaxed. Then we went into the main street. I just love China at night. It was dusk, and the sky was glowing orange as the neon signs came on, street food sizzled and friend and smelled delicious, and people packed the street. We sampled random food items and just took everything in. We found a store that sold 10 kuai scarves ($1.66) when its usually impossible to bargain below 20. We had spicy food at some random restaurant and it was just awesome.
The next day, we biked the city wall which was probably my favorite thing that we did. I've spent a lot of time here seeing things, it was nice to actually do something and in the process see the city from a completely different perspective. The only downside was the ancient cobblestones that made it a very bumpy ride. We did the 8 mile ride in exactly the time we had rented the bikes for, 100 minutes. So fun.
We then went to find the Golden Goose Pagoda which took longer than we intended it too. Mykhanh and I wanted to get back for church so we just saw it from a distance and called it good and then went back to go to mass (its becoming a tradition in our friendship). It took awhile to get there and we didn't really know where we going. Again per tradition, we came late and slipped in the back and left early to make it to the hostel and then to the train.
Since our train left at like 6 we had some time to talk before we fell asleep. It gave us all a chance to process our China experiences up to that point. Because of the language pledge that's always on at IES we don't always get to have real conversations like this. Very thankful for my friends.
That was something that struck me about Xi'an. Seeing the terra cotta soldiers. It was another one of those moments where I went "woah... I really am here!" Crazy stuff. I have heard about those things my whole life, and I really got to see them in the flesh (terra cotta flesh?). We are infinitely more comfortable with traveling now, my Chinese is improving even if its not as quickly as I would like sometimes, I really am doing this.
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