Xian, China's ancient capital, and Xianyang, its close neighbor, were my first experiences in non-ethnic minority China. I spent most of my time there on a train back and forth between the two cities.
Luckily I really love trains (after the camel my third favorite form of transportation) and have come to love them more the more I ride them. Something about the rocking back and forth, the predictable clickity clack, and the scrolling view from the window is just appealing to me.
Chinese trains, though, are unique among trains. Get on too late and you'll find yourself standing wedged between a woman with a drooling baby and a man eating his weight in boiled eggs. Get on too early and bear the pummeling as hundreds of others squeeze their way on board. Go for the hard sleepers only to wake finding yourself the object of much scrutiny from the stranger on the bunk below you. Go for the hard seats and come to a quick and brutal understanding of the Chinese meaning of "hard". Always the train staff in vain attempt to sell anything from socks to holographic pictures of tigers while simultaneously pushing their way through the crowded isles as a salmon trying to get upstream. Occasionally a drunk man bold enough to pick a fight with a foreigner nearly twice his body mass. And don't forget, lone white foreigner, you are the entertainment for your car.
So I found myself intrigued by Chinese trains.
Other Xian and Xianyang notables:
- A mercifully easy trip out to the Terracotta Warriors... it looks just like the pictures, statues surrounded by dirt. Amusingly located down the street from the front gate is the Terracotta Warrior Factory... hmmmm....
- The sun in this city had a strange orange/red tint to it which I guess was the result of the light attempting to push its way through the pollution. Never saw the blue sky here.
- So many McDonalds and Starbucks and other western restaurants. It was easy enough to convince yourself that you weren't really in China, especially because the Chinese restaurants were all chains and not that great. But wait, those McDonald's pies are... bean paste flavored?!?! Guess I was in China after all.
- The Muslim quater was massive and easily the most fascinating place in the city. Miles of allies and markets, food and junk, art and clothes. It's amazing the variety of foods they can put on a stick. The funny thing was I actually felt a twinge of familiarity when we went to a Xinjiang restaurant to eat the muslim noodles we consume with glee in Lhasa.
- My first run in with Chinese Buddhism. Removing the giant gold covered gods and arcid insense stinging your nostrils there was little in common with the Buddhism which makes this city its prisioner.
- You can get bubble tea in Xianyang for two kuai... heads up travelers... it's worth a stop here just for that!
