We pulled into Xian early this morning to find we are once again surrounded by a milky haze. We think it's caused by the dust blown over from the Gobi Desert (not kidding!). The overnight train trip was a great experience. We were in a compartment with four beds: two lower bunks and two upper bunks. Lucky for us we had great bunk mates: two women, Sue and Sheryn, from NewZealand traveling through china and then heading off to Vietnam. We had lots of fun sharing stories of our experiences in Beijing. Sue will be staying in china, hopes to find work in Beijing and study Mandarin. Sheryn will head home to hubby in New Zealand and very generously offered to show us around if we ever make it to New Zealand. We also shared the food we had all packed for the trip: cheese, bread, crackers, fruit and some wonderful baked twisty sesame sticks (a Chinese specialty). The beds were quite firm and the pillows hard as a rock. We had a nice soft comforter, however it was quite warm in the cabin. Luckily there was a halfway decent western-style toilet down the hall and each car had a communal washroom with three sinks. I took a walk through the train to see what the other cars were like. The car just past ours was anaother soft sleeper inhabited mainly by a lively tour group from France. Beyond their car the hard sleepers began: six beds to a compartment and no doors on the compartment for privacy! In the other direction was the dining car and beyond that cars with regular non-sleeper seats. I never fell into a deep sleep but kind of dozed off and on all night. Surprisingly enough I was full of energy when we pulled into Xian, though Brad was dragging a bit. It was chaos outside the train station. We were met by our guide, a friendly Chinese woman named Lynn. She had a bit of a time locating our driver, but finally did and we were whisked away to our hotel where we showered, had breakfast and hit the streets.

Xian has a totally different feel from Beijing. It's a lot more laid back and we were not accosted every 5 minutes by street hawkers like we were in Beijing. It is extremely dusty in Xian. Our hotel is on the main drag inside the still city wall that still surrounds the city. We were surprised at all the shops and huge shopping centers lining the streets. The historical sites are all kinda drab and dull looking as they are covered with inches and inches of Gobi Desert dust. We walked to one of the main gates along the wall, climbed to the top and had a look around from that vantage point. Then we strolled down "Calligraphy Lane" a shopping street with many stores selling calligraphy supplies. We encountered lots of interesting wares for sale and many caged singing birds. We had lunch at a place highly recommended by our travel guide: Lao Sun. It is a Muslim restaurant that specializes in an odd dish. You are given a big bowl with two hard pancakes in it. Then you shred the pancakes up into very small pieces into yuor bowl. The waiter takes your bowl away and then returns it to you filled with a mutton stew with noodles. condiments on the side were a plate filled with roasted garlic cloves, chopped cilantro and hot chili past. I was really leery about eating mutton, but it was not half bad. Tonihgt we are going to a Tang Dynasty show and supper.