Nick and I slept pretty badly, I assume due to baijiu and sodium intake, so our 6:45 alarm felt extra brutal. We managed to shower and clean up our disastrous hotel room and get in a taxi by 8:30. I left one big item behind: Millie’s ride safer vest. This has stood in for a car seat but we realized that for the rest of the trip we will be renting cars only in developed countries where they’ll have decent seats for rent. It felt painful leaving it behind knowing that I could resell it for $100 on Facebook marketplace, but the extra space it left in my bag was welcome.

We rode through Beijing morning traffic and arrived at the massive train station. It was busy but easy to figure out where we needed to be to get our train.

We boarded and set off. The train was silent and FAST. I prefer train travel to plane travel by a magnitude of 100. Judy’s little head sticking out of the overhead storage made me laugh.

We assumed our regular roles. Nick read guidebooks, Millie watched a movie, and I listened to a podcast and alternated between looking out of the window and taking a nap. Every time I looked out there were enormous blocks of apartment buildings. Even the rural farm towns had huge apartments. We passed through multiple large cities.

Nick read a stat in the book that put this into perspective. In the US, there are currently 10 cities with a population of more than a million. China has 140. 140 cities like LA, NYC, Chicago, Dallas, etc. We are constantly flabbergasted by the sheer scale of China. I’ve given up of thinking Spanish is an important language for Millie to learn and am all in on Chinese.

After 4 hours, we arrived in Xi’an. We called a taxi. It took a while to arrive so Nick and Millie both relaxed in these futuristic massage chairs.

We checked into our hotel and spent about an hour in the room relaxing. Then we went out to explore.

We walked along the old city wall and stopped in at a craft brewery for a beer and juice. Millie drew.

We walked onwards to the Muslim quarter which is a lively series of market stalls. We tasted anything that looked good. We had dried persimmons, fried potato on a stick, grilled squid, sticky rice, a meat filled pastry, yogurt, and fresh fruit.

We stopped in at a shop that had women hand pulling noddles outside. We got the Yangrou Paomo which had glass noddles and pieces of bread torn up into it, and Biang biang noodles, which were thick and spicy and salty. Both we great and we once again ended our day feeling way too full.

We walked back through the market and passed the bell tower.

Xi