After we left the school we went back for lunch at the hotel so the students who played sport could shower. After lunch and a refreshing stop we were taken to the South Gate of the wall that surrounds the inner city of Xian. The wall with a moat kept the marauding invaders out during the ancient times. The wall was 14km long and each side had a gate for entry. We started at the South Gate. As we walked up to the top of the Gate it was still very smoggy. We could not see the end of the wall in either direction. We had free time and spent two hours looking around. Some of us decided to walk the wall. In the time we might just make it. Unfortunately we didn’t and had to turn around. Many of the others hired bicycles and rode the wall. They had a great experience making it around in no time. Some of the bikes broke down and a few had greasy hands fixing them. A lot of fun was had by all and just what we needed to unwind after all the travelling. We were also getting prepared for the train trip to Beijing.
We had a great time climbing over the wall of Xian and were treated to a show at the South gate before we left. We headed for dinner then went to the train station.
At this time the weather had packed in and it was drizzling-enough to get wet. Unfortunately we had a 150m walk from where the train dropped us off to the train station. We never anticipated the busy time at the train station and the wet weather. We trawled our way to the station. This spread the 66 over a bit of a distance and this was amongst the locals and others trying to get to the train station. It was bedlam! We all made it then had to go through security. All the bags were wet and went through the machines. We congregated around the entry to the train lounge and we managed to get through into an already packed lounge. Sardines in a can – smelt the same. We didn’t have to wait long before we were allowed to go to the platform and board the train. We were split into two groups. One went to carriage 1. This was filled with our group. The rest went to carriage 5 & 6. We boarded our sleepers. Each soft sleeper contained 4 beds. It was cramp but comfortable. Everyone settled in and enjoyed the ride to Beijing. The carriages between 1 and 5 were triple sleepers where six beds were in each cabin. The locals used these. The toilet facilities were OK but by the end of the trip were not very clean.
The various cabins socialised through the trip and many slept most of the way. It was a different mode of transport and an enjoyable experience. Some were pretty tired when we reached Beijing but the soldiered on.
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