Leaving on a Jet Train

Last night at 9pm, John, Ethan, and I boarded a sleeper train from Beijing to Xi'an. After spending 90 days in Beijing, it was strange to leave the city I'd become so comfortable with for another. We'd purchased upper bunk soft sleepers, meaning that the three of us were split into two rooms. There are 4 bunks per room, and the upper bunks are cheaper than the lower. We paid RMB 400 ($58) for the 11-hour overnight train. Ethan and John shared their room with 2 20-something Chinese boys, and I shared mine with 1 Chinese teen, a young woman, and her 3-yr-old child, who was cute as the dickens. Each room has a luggage rack above the door, 4 bunks, and a small table. Since it was so late at night, we stood out in the hall and chatted for an hour before each turning in to our bunks. I took some time to organize photos on my laptop before falling asleep and sleeping pretty soundly until 8am. 

This morning, we pulled into the station at Xi'an and it was raining. Outside with a sign saying "David Daldwin," was our tour guide Kelly. We went with her to the ticket booth to try to purchase our tickets for Lhasa, which can only be purchased in Xi'an. She was informed by the desk, however, that we would need out Tibet Travel Permit in order to purchase the ticket, and we were still waiting for that to be shipped from Chengdu, where our travel agent is based. We called the hotel to see if it had arrived, but it had not. Fingers crossed, we began our day's touring. We visited a factory that was producing Terra Cotta Warrior replicas, and saw some incredible handicrafts, but also some incredible prices. It was really just a racket to get us to spend money. Then we went to the Terra Cotta Warrior Museum, where we saw the dig pits and the actual warriors, who were built to protect the Qin Dynasty Emperor in his afterlife. The sheer size and numbers were pretty overwhelming.

Then we visited the Xi'an City Wall, where we were treated to a class on feng shui and offered Jade animals for sale (racket,) and finally the Wild Goose Pagoda, which was built 1000 years ago. In the rain, crowds were small, and this was the most peaceful part of our day. 

After checking with the hotel to find that our permit had arrived, we went to Xi'an City Hotel to check in. This was the cheapest hotel we could find, but for $51, the 3 of us aren't too disappointed with the quality. The package was waiting at the desk, so after we dumped our luggage, we headed off to the train station to relieve the one source of tension in our minds. No fewer than 3 tour agents had told me that they could not get us tickets to Lhasa, and our tour guide Kelly told us again today that it was unlikely that we'd be able to get the tickets. Train tickets can only be purchased 4 days in advance and only from the city of origin, and when traveling to Tibet, the Tibet Travel Permit must be presented in order to purchase the tickets. They all recommended that we just fly. We got to the station, checked in with the front desk, where the police looked at our permit and registered all of our passport numbers, and stood in line where the lady quickly sold us 3 sleeper tickets for the train to Lhasa, leaving tomorrow morning at 8:48 am. We gave each other high-fives and told the worker "women ai ni" or "we love you." She laughed. With that stress off our plate, we went out to an inexpensive Chinese dinner with a big bottle of Tsing Tao, the Beijing 2008 beer, to celebrate. Tomorrow morning we'll board the world's highest altitude train for Tibet!