The high speed train from Zhengzhou to Xian
After what seemed like an all day journey to take a 2 hour train ride, I have arrived at my hotel in Xian.
I will talk more about Xian when I have seen some of Xian.
I already alluded to why it would take so long to get here, lack of availability of high speed train tickets meant I had to leave Zhengzhou from the western station not the central station. Also not the eastern station I arrived at 3 days ago which was connected via the subway system. Instead I took an earlier high speed train to the western station where I waited for 2.5 hours. I expected this to be a huge modern station, well it was modern, but tiny, not even a shop! Just a single platform. I have no idea why it exists, theres not really anything nearby, just farms.
Once I finished waiting for 2.5 hours the ride was quite fun, a group of men played a very loud card game and got super animated. At first I thought they all knew each other, but this is the great thing about China, they didnt. Some of the players got off at intermediate stations, and then other people got on or walked up from other carriages and joined the game.
A guy sitting next to me waited for a while before someone left and he then joined in, the card table was set up by re arranging 2 blocks of 3 seats into club seating, and sticking a bucket on the ground with a suitcase on top, room for 6 players.
They played at the end of the carriage where you can store bags behind the seats, but that area now became standing room for spectators.
If you tried to join someones card game on a train in Australia, you would be arrested at the next station.
Once I arrived at Xian north ultra modern high speed station, I had to do two more tasks before heading to my hotel, both were time consuming. First I had to buy another train ticket for tomorrows adventure, which will be long and challenging, and then I had to buy a ticket for the subway into town. Both of these required line policing where I grab people trying to push in and tell them they have no culture. The final challenge, expereinced by me and many Chinese people, was getting the subway ticket machines to correctly suck in a bank note. Everyone was frustrated by how poorly this was working on all the machines, fix this Xian!
Because of this travel boredom, record low number of photos today!
Here is ZZ central station, I thought it would be really old inside, it was quite modern, it had a KFC but no Starbucks or Mcdonalds. Very busy even though this was around 7:30AM - things dont generally happen early in China.
My 10 minute journey deposited me at the western station, here it is. I walked away from it hoping to find something to amuse myself with, I found nothing. I could not wander far as I was dragging my suitcase.
This is the entirety of the inside of the station, now you might think this looks large, but for a Chinese high speed rail station its tiny. Some of these station serve over a million people each day. This one strangely does not even have a single shop, and no vending machine, nowhere to buy water!
Most trains went straight through without stopping, when mine came only a few of us thirsty individuals clamoured up the stairs with our bags to board the train. There were no escalators or lifts, and at least 50 stairs up to the platform.
Here is Xian, the bell tower to be precise, wheres the bell? This is just a taste of Xian, more on this later. The city seems futuristic, tourist friendly, up market. All because of some clay statues.
This is the view out of my hotel this time, I guess those are the shared gardens for the apartments surrounding them, with skylights into the car park below.
My room is a bit smaller, but very western, very modern. It has a strange entrance and waiting lobby for the separate Shower and Toilet, its all like a Japanese hotel, but probably twice as big.
One unusual thing, it has a well stocked FREE minibar. Yes free. Theres no alcohol but there are chips, chocolates, soft drinks. I remember one time in Nanjing the minibar was free too.
Since I had not eaten, it was time to select a bakery, only 5 to choose from 100 metres from the door of my hotel. I chose one claiming to be Taiwanese, and got a sushi roll sandwich and a huge cake. Both amazingly delicious. I want more of the cake, it had crunchy stuff in it, candied cockroaches perhaps.
The muslim street market of Xian
Everything in Xian is huge and made to look ancient, except its all really very modern, and ultra clean, and well lit. I like it.
There are certainly tourists here, presumably all to see the terracotta warriors, which seem to fund the entire cities wealth even though they are quite a long distance out of the city.
Thats not to say the centre of Xian has no history on offer, there are lots of famous monuments and a huge muslim community who have turned their streets into an amazing amusement park of street stalls and neon lights. I also liked that.
As you will see the entire area has been beautified, with fresh flowers planted everywhere, floral sculptures, good quality street furniture, I could go on, I wont, instead I will go on in the photos below.
I do however already think I need more days in Xian, I am only here for 3 nights.
There is no lack of modern shopping malls. As you will see they started out huge and got bigger and more awesomely ancient Chinese in design.
Here is a random street scene looking back towards the bell tower. Again I probably went the wrong way, but then again there probably is no wrong way in Xian, everywhere is nice.
A store has set up on a staircase leading to another store.
Here is a pedestrian street. Pffft, it may look nice and clean and modern, but this is the crappy pedestrian street, keep going.
I made a brief stop to challenge some guys to a radio controlled car race. Mine went under an electric bus so I just ran off.
There will not be a lack of modern malls. They are also all joined together by an underground network of tunnels.
The picture doesnt convey this, but this is a book store in a street underpass tunnel. There is nothing else in this tunnel. What the photo doesnt show is that its a steep downward slope. Its like its meant to be a drainage tunnel, but instead its a book shop, maybe its both.
The modestly sized local government office. I presume they have more money than they know what to do with.
Miles and miles of flowers and manicured trees.
I stopped to get my bearings crossing a major road, bell tower again.
Still more flowers. Lots more were being planted, most stores had giant sculptures made out of flowers.
A truly magnificent spectacle. The long building on the right is all restaurants...and a starbucks.
This is a department store. Along here all the stores are ancient China themed. Some might think thats silly but I like it.
This however is not a department store. It gets dark very late here because its a long way west of Beijing. Later on in the distance I could see this was brightly lit up, I will provide a photo on another night.
Now we enter the amazing Muslim street market area.
It is so good its worth 2 photos.
The main food is sheep, we call it lamb, they prefer to call it mutton, some times they call it baby mutton when they mean lamb. There are lots and lots of stalls carving entire sheep like this in the street.
There are also numerous spice shops, mainly chilli, thats fine by me. This one was featured on CCTV. Just like in Japan, if you have been on NHK, the same applies in China if you have been on CCTV, you should have a sign informing everyone. My number one business plan is fake I have been on CCTV signs. I am sure its already been done.
Running off the network of main streets are these alleyways with signs saying they lead to the Xian mosque. I could not find the mosque, I was looking for minarets though, maybe it doesnt have minarets?
Clearly, Muslim Chinese, or perhaps regular Han Chinese visiting the Muslim Chinese amusement park, enjoy having their feet nibbled by fish.
Just another one of the streets a few blocks away from the main chaos. Someone is making drinks with liquid nitrogen here...dangerous!
Another large chilli shop, this one has not been on CCTV, however they do have the giant stone grinding wheel in use.
Most of the streets have a variation of this bright red lantern thing hanging from the trees, I like it.
Just another gate with cool lighting.
This is the entrance to a KTV, going in is probably ok, but I believe people drink to excess in these places. How would you go coming down these steps at 3AM blind drunk? It was flashing bright colors at epileptic speeds.
That is entirely all shopping mall. I was amazed.
Nearby I saw a sign advertising backpacker hostels, and sure enough, bar street.
After all that, I chose dinner poorly, I was in a rush to get back to my hotel as I still have some research to do for tomorrow. I ended up at this Japanese place where I ordered Gyu don (beef bowl). Instead I was given pork schnitzel bowl, with a raw egg on top. I didnt really want crumbed deep fried pork, and in China I dont really want any raw egg. It wasnt great! Not to worry, nearby was a supermarket with the fruit salad bar for second dinner.