This was the exciting night where we got to take an overnight train!  (Spoiler alert: not like the movies.)

But first, we ventured on top of the Xi’an city wall to go biking.  Impressively, they had enough bikes to outfit our group of 60+, with some to spare.  A full circuit around the top of the wall was 8 flat miles, perfect for a leisurely ride.  And we finally had one day of seasonal weather in the 70s.  (Spoiler alert: it would be the only one, as temps the next day would plummet into the 40s).

We waited in line for our single or tandem bikes. then set off around the perimeter.  It was really fun crusing the top of the ancient city wall, past towers and lanterns, with the city skyline in the distance.  There was also a road race happening at the same time (and in fact Tom apparently nearly took out into the female winner just before she crossed the finish line).  And, to the kids’ joy, there was even a shop that sold ice cream close to the finish point.

There were also lots of locals who wanted to take our photos.  Half of our family got trapped with their bikes inside a large crowd of people and were unable to move forward until all the photos were taken.  Zoe and Evie got pulled aside by a preschool teacher, who carefully arranged all her adorable charges in a ring around them.

I’m looking at my photos, trying to figure out where it was we went next.  It was another crowded market street.  Things are a bit of a blur at this point.  I think there was a drum tower and a bell tower involved.  The bells were rung to open the city gates in the morning, and the drums were beat to close them at night.  Or possibly vice versa.  We’re getting kind of tired here.  The thing I do remember is that I was holding my camera up high, taking a picture of the crowd, and was looking up at my camera, and fell into a trash can that was directly in my path, and then had to run around to all the chaperones trying to find hand sanitizer. (Edited to

add: Zoe, with her youthful brain, remembers.  It was the famous Muslim quarter, and featured lots of local shops and foods.  We were advised by our guide to avoid the latter.)

Our next stop was the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, a Buddhist pagoda within the Daci’en Template complex.  As with everywhere we’ve been here, the surrounding grounds were lovely and immaculate.  The city of Xi’an, in addition to being the ancient capital, is also one of the endpoints of the Silk Road — which explains the huge amount of history to be found here.  Because of an earthquake, it leans somewhat like the famous Italian tower.  We were not able to climb up in this one, though.

Our guide, who was very funny and interesting, did take us into a large room full of artwork.  Historically, this temple provided free housing to the top students in China, who were often too poor to travel to study in the capital otherwise.  We were told that this tradition continues today — and there are still monks in residence here.  To help earn their keep and support the temple, they sell their art.  Our guide gave us a demonstration of calligraphy and drawing with the traditional Chinese brush.  The artwork was a bit out of our budget, but I did take the opportunity to pay the artist-in-residence to write Nadia and Lanie’s names in Chinese characters to bring home for them.

Then it was time for the train.  I should say that initially I was very excited about the overnight train, with visions of the mystery and romance you see in the movies dancing through my head.  Some of the other chaperones were less enthusiastic.  And we all felt our spirits dampen somewhat when Mr. Ervin started talking about his last experience on the train, where he’d been in a “hard sleeper” (the cheaper berths, which are open to the aisles) and ended up in a staring contest with some random ruffian who was trying to go through the baggage.  We were told that given the number of us on the train, most would probably end up in the hard sleepers.

Luckily, someone decided to question our Chinese guides a little later on, and found out that we all had “soft sleepers” — four-person rooms with a locking door — and we all breathed a sigh of relief.

But first we had to get through the train station.  After the last time, we also had a fair bit of trepidation around this process.  As it turned out, security in Xi’an was not like in Chengdu — we had to go through a couple of scanners and get a pat-down from the guards, but at least no one had to rifle through our luggage or steal our toiletries.  On the other hand, there was a major design flaw in this station.  After schlepping all our possessions across the station and through the multiple security checkpoints (keep in mind at this point I was carrying a large framed panda print in addition to my normal luggage), we were confronted with a large set of stairs.  Turned out we had to go up three flights, across a short hall, and then down three flights again.  And we didn’t have a lot of

extra time.  At least my suitcase was small and relatively light — others were much worse off.  I don’t know who ended up carrying the huge and heavy percussion suitcase, but Tom, of course, had Al along for the ride.

The train was another adventure.  The seats had been assigned pretty randomly, so we had to do some quick swapping around to make sure that, for instance, we didn’t have a kid alone in a car with three strangers.  We didn’t have much time for this, and I ended up getting stuck on the wrong car after trading my berth.  Fortunately I was able to find out that they would open all the connecting doors once we got going, so I didn’t actually have to spend the trip standing in the hallway.

Not that the cabins were much better.  They were TINY, with bunk beds on each side that took up most of the available space.  There was very little room for luggage, and what storage there was involved hoisting it onto a shelf above the door, about 8 feet up.  It was quite a precarious endeavor trying to balance yourself while gathering enough strength to shove the suitcases upward.  It was not exactly the accommodations that Murder on the Orient Express had let me to expect.  (Also, when some of us later tried to go to the lounge car, we found out that (a) there were no seats available, and (b) we had to pay to stay there.)

Nevertheless, the train seemed to be great fun for the kids, who pretty much started up a series of small roving parties in the various cabins.  I felt a bit sorry for the other people who were in our carriages.  Eventually, though, everyone settled down and got some degree of sleep — mostly rather uncomfortable and interrupted, but better than nothing.  The kit I’d been given on the plane — containing toothbrush, toothpaste, an eye mask, ear plugs, and a pair of socks that served passably as a towel — came in very handy.