Xi'An

Our first stop on our journey was the ancient city of Xi'An. After a pretty good sleep on the night train, we arrived early morning in a rainy Xi'An. As we knew that getting train tickets could at times be quite a challenge, we immediately bought onward tickets to Jiayuguan.

On leaving the station, we saw a small Chinese boy dutifully urinating in an empty noodle box. But just as we were impressed by his cleanliness and aiming skills, he joyfully threw the box and the contents in the air... A warm welcome to Xi'An indeed.

We found a nice youth hostel near the Bell Tower, right in the centre of the city. It was good value for money, and there was a nice and easy travellers' atmosphere. A good breakfast and a adorable kitten made the picture complete.

We then set off to the Terracotta Army, about 1 hour bus drive out of the city. It was still pouring down with rain, but as the terracotta army is sheltered in several buildings, this didn't bother us.

The army itself was quite amazing: about 8000 life-sized statues of warriors, archers and horsemen, burried underground for over 2000 years. This incredible undertaking was ordered by emperor Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of a unified China. He must have been quite afraid of being conquered after his death, or plainly mad - or both of course.


On the following day, back in Xi'An, we wandered about at a relaxed pace. The city was quite nice, but not so very different than other Chinese cities we had seen before. With the old monuments (bell tower, drum tower, great mosque and of course the city wall), it felt quite "Chinese" (i.e. less Western than Shanghai), but knowing that the monuments are mostly replica's from buildings that have been destroyed during the cultural revolution gnawed more than a bit off of our wonder and amazement, especially as it was nowhere shown that it were replica's..

However, the Muslim quarter was quite a nice place to stroll around in. Nice small shops, vendors selling dried fruits and road-side restaurants fuming out inviting smells of foods. All this in the backdrop of the great mosque, which is built in Chinese architectural style - rather weird but interesting. Our visit to the mosque was quite enchanting: we visited it at nightfall, when the last prayers were performed.


We enjoyed a dinner of a local speciality: different vegetables and meats, boiled in a spicy broth and dipped in a tasty sesame-paste. Really nice.

Xi'An was a good place as a first stop. From there, we took a night train to Jiayuguan, deep in Gansu province.

Train Ticket Madness

We went to the Shanghai train station yesterday afternoon, intending to buy a ticket to Xi'An.

The situation is as follows: we know tickets are only available 5 days in advance, so we went on monday to get tickets for saturday. We also know there are about 10 trains daily between Shanghai and Xi'An, each of them easily carrying over 1000 people.
We aim to leave on Saturday, but in case we by then still don't have our Iranian visa (see other entry), we'd take a train on monday.

A reconstruction of the events at the Shanghai station ticket counter:

Hanna> We would like to buy a ticket to Xi'An, please.
Clerk> When? Today?
Hanna> No, on saturday 9th August. We'd like to take the fast train at 16:30, and book two sleepers.
Clerk> Sorry, no have. Only slow train. 20 hours. You want?
Hanna> Is it possible to get the ticket refunded if we would like to change our departure date?
Clerk> No.
Hanna> Well... we will take it on another day then. What about monday 11th august?
Clerk> Sorry, only can booking 5 days advance. You must return the day after tomorrow.
Hanna> Ok. Is it fine if we come here around 5pm?
Clerk> No, no. One hour, everything sold out. Gone.


So we learned that getting on a Chinese long-distance train is best compared to trying to buy concert tickets for a very popular rock band: there are over 10000 tickets available, but actually getting one mainly depends on your luck of getting through the overburdened telephone network.

Just imagine: 10000 tickets, gone within an hour! Every day!