19 September 2018
A 12 hour overnight train ride brought us to Xi’an the ancient capital of China. The 1200km trip was taken in soft seat cabins. In comparison the hard seat cabins must have been a plank of wood. We all survived and the shared cabins with four bunks all added to the experience of travel in China.
The terracotta warriors are something special. There are about 2,000 restored so far and 8,000 to go. I am guessing that somewhere down the track they will find more buried treasurer in what was once the capital of China.
There are a lot of people in China and I might be repeating myself but the numbers are a little overwhelming. We are in a small city tonight; it’s only 4 million people. The pervious cities were 24 mil in Beijing and 9 million in Xi’an.
Being the capital Beijing has restrictions on night time city lights. That’s not the case in Xi’an (Shee Arn) which resembles a combination of Las Vegas and Times Square but over a massive area of the city centre. There are 6 power stations surrounding Xi’an, probably powered by Queensland coal and their output is pretty obvious at night.
We are now in Guilin (Gwaylyn) a city surrounded by a limestone karst landscape. Nearby are amazing rice terraces some 500 years old. The countryside here is more like Asia but more ordered and clean in comparison with other less developed Asian countries.
Recent observations:
Personal space in China – there is none just get over it. How to walk through a crowd of people; in a straight line, no deviation.
Domestic travel is huge and you can be sure of massive crowds at any railway station, airport, tourist destination, pedestrian mall or shopping centre. And all of these venues are overwhelmingly covered by cameras.
You can be confident all souvenirs are made in China, no foreign imports here.
Being a centralised government the newspapers are full of happy news. No car accidents or shootings, no crime or political intrigue, no scandals or depressing news about the environment and global warming or the price of housing – it’s great.
A Traveller's Tale 