Day 6 – Travel to Xian

Today we got up early and took a bullet train from Chengdu to Xian.

There was some excitement at the Chengdu Train Station, trying to find a toilet. While waiting in a long restroom line, the woman in front of us did a long loud hawk and spit on the floor. Sophie just looked at me with big eyes. We’ve found that often the easiest Western toilet in a public place is the handicap toilet, but this one had a smelly flood all over the floor. So we stood in the long line, only to find at the front of the long line that the 20+ stalls (in a huge modern train station!) were all squatty potties. I can’t believe that despite the ‘toilet revolution’ it is still so hard to find Western toilets, let alone bathrooms with toilet paper! Anyway, we waited til we were on the train, and the first class car had a western toilet.

Later after arriving in Xian, our bus took us to the Xian City Wall, dating back to the 14^th Century. The bathroom there had a Western toilet as promised, but all the toilet paper dispensers were empty. So it is still a struggle to pee in China.

We climbed the 70 steps up to the top of the 14 meter high wall, and the kids rode rented bikes on the wide top of the wall. It is about a 9 mile circumference around the old city. We had about an hour to walk and bike on the huge wall. Xian was the starting point of the Silk Road, so there is a lot of ancient  trading history here!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortifications_of_Xi%27an

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road

Then our bus took us to our hotel – the Grand Dynasty Culture Hotel. I took a break from the group dinner tonight. Everyone else went out to a buffet dinner, but I went to the hotel restaurant and ordered what I wanted from the menu, and had a quiet peaceful vegetarian meal with a glass of red Chinese wine. For the last few days our group dinners have consisted of family style dishes of vegetables and even tofu, all with chicken and pork added… i.e. dishes I would have loved to eat except for all the meat! So frustrating! So tonight I got what I wanted. (Vegetable curry with tofu and rice.) The kids got a bus tour of the city, and saw several landmarks lit up at night.

Tomorrow morning we check out, go to see the Terracotta Warriors in the morning, then head to the airport and fly to Guilin.