Train to Xi’an

Yesterday afternoon we went to the Baoding train station where Zhou had arranged tickets for the three of us on an overnight train to Xian. This is not as easy as it sounds as tickets are hard to come by at the last minute. So Zhou called in a few favors with a couple directors working at the station and we were given three sleeping cots.

It was not the best night’s sleep as the cots were hard and whenever the train passed another train going in the opposite direction, both blasted their horns. For some reason, I was in constant dread of derailing. I must have been confusing the Chinese train system with the English.

It felt like I slept five minutes at a time the whole night. Five minutes on my left side – five minutes on my back – five minutes on my right side. Repeat. Otherwise, I felt fine and I have had worse nights.

In the morning, I had to use the bathroom, a harrowing experience. It was a floor toilet and either the car had exhausted its water supply or service had been discontinued as we approached our destination. I was sufficiently traumatized but I have lived to tell the tale. I believe it is another one of Mao’s famous sayings: “A man is not a man until he has used a floor toilet that will not flush.”

We arrived at the station at about 6:30am. As soon as we got on the platform, we were approached by a fast-talking young man. He handed Zhou his card and made his pitch. It must have been pretty good because Zhou hired him as our local guide. The scene just outside the station was a madhouse, the kind of chaotic press of people that I instinctively associated with China but hadn’t really encountered before now.

Our guide obtained a little taxi-van for us and we were driven to a high rise on the other side of the city center where Zhou and S spent several minutes negotiating with staff at the front desk...