We woke up early. We needed to find a store open so we could purchase some cups of noodles and bottled water for our 3 hour train trip to Xi’an (She-an). We found a store open, and while we were in the store choosing our noodles, we saw that they were selling small bottles of the black vinegar. With noodles, water, and black vinegar in hand we were then ready for our next journey.
As we walked back to our hotel the street was buzzing with men working hard to get cement columns put into place on an arch that was being restored.
We packed up, and we were really for our taxi. It was sad to say goodbye, because we really liked our hotel and the friendly people there at the City Wall Courtyard.
We stood outside our hotel and waited to be picked up and taken to the train station. Mia told us that early in the morning cars are allowed to drive into the ancient walled city.
When going through security at the train station, they were very interested in Drew’s suitcase. They kept showing him a knife and saying something in Chinese. Drew kept shaking his head no and telling them he did not have a knife. We finally figured out it was his scissors that he uses to trim his beard, that had shown up on their xray screen. The security guards all laughed and waved us through. This train station was very small compared to Beijing, but it had plenty of empty seats.
We noticed that this train was not travelling as fast as our first train.Our first train was going 300 kph, which was about 186 miles per hour. This train was going 250 kph, which was about 155 miles per hour. After about 2 hours we decided we should eat our lunch.
There was a worker on the train that was very attentive to us. She motioned to us where the hot water was located, showed us where to set the cup of noodles while filling the other cup of noodles with boiling water. She also helped us carry the noodles back to our seats. Then she opened up a package of paper towels and brought us some. We found that the Chinese people were very friendly and helpful.
We arrived in Xi’an and took a taxi to our hotel. Hotels.com and Booking.com make it easy for the taxi drivers, because they will give you the address in English and Chinese. The walled city in Xi’an is nothing like the walled city in Pingyao. In Xi’an they have torn down almost all the ancient buildings and have replaced them with newer multi-story buildings. We checked into our hotel, the room was very basic, but the bed was so comfortable. We rested, because later we were going on our food tour.
Inside the walled city in Xi’an was very different than Pingyao.