Taking the Fast Train to Xi'an-Low Prices and Living Better

Yesterday, I checked out of the hostel in Shanghai. Shanghai was ok, but nothing special. The temples we're similar to what I had seen in Hong Kong. The European buildings we're nice, but similar to what I saw in Europe. The market selling crickets and squirrels was interesting, though. As we're the stalls selling Chinese street food.

So yesterday I left to take the 6 hour rail journey to Xi'An-home to the Terracotta warriors. The price for flying and taking the high speed train was fairly comparable, but I wanted to see the country, and I was tired of going to the airport, through security, and getting on airplanes.

So I made it to the station about 7:00 yesterday, 1 1/2 hours before the train left. The station was the main station for the bullet train from Shanghai. The station was gigantic, was mobbed, and dwarfs Grand Central Terminal. All of Shanghai dwarfs New York. Shanghai has 3 times the population, and the metro is the largest in the world.

The 6 hour rail trip was pretty relaxing. The train sped past quite a few cities, with high rise housing under construction. The train made a few stops. One stop was in a town called Zhengzou. I don't think I have heard of it previously-but upon looking it up it has a population of close to 10 million. The city had a modern bullet train station.

The train also passed by country fields, pagodas, farms, before reaching Xi'an about 3:30 pm. At Xi'an, I was able to take the metro a few stops, and find the hostel. (Yes Xi'an has a metro)

The cheap sandals I bought in Hong Kong already broke, I lost a sneaker my sweatshirt-so I wasn't in a good position, particularly since it was cold and rainy out. It was already close to 4:00, and rather then go sightseeing, I decided to go shopping. The guy at the front desk said H&M wasn't too far away, so I walked, past building and a beautiful bell tower, towards that area, which featured lots of shops. I felt like having pizza for a change, so I had an early dinner at Pizza Hut-a durian flavored pizza which was ok. I looked at a map provided by the hostel-a lot of stores and points of interest we're outlined. One I had to look twice, and see if I read it right. It said "Wal Mart". I thought this can't be the Wal Mart I was familiar with-of country western songs, emails poking fun at their customers, and always low prices, but I walked to the point on the map-and sure enough-it was Wal Mart. Even compared to Wal Mart's I was familiar with-it was pretty dingy, but I was able to get some toothpaste, detergent, mandarins, and other stuff. Like Wal Mart, check-out was pretty slow.

Across from Wal-Mart was a giant shoe store, selling cheap shoes at prices with a guy with a megaphone out front attracting people to great deals-(I was able to pick up cheap slippers for around 50 cents). I got some new sandals, sneakers and the new slippers all for around $10.00.

On the way back, I did find H&M, and bought a new sweater for around $10.00. it was still cold and dark, so I found the way back to the hostel.