China, Beijing -> Xi'an

October 26–27, 2010: Shortly before 10 pm the train finally got moving. To be honest, I’d expected worse from Chinese trains. The corridors were roomier than on the Russian and Mongolian trains, and the berths roughly on a par. I shared the compartment with three Chinese passengers and a European couple (Enrique from Spain and Bryony from the UK). I was also lucky enough to meet an English-speaking Chinese guy called 褚晓伟. Since some Chinese names are hard for non-Chinese to pronounce, some people give themselves an English name. He had picked William – after the English prince. We talked about his job at a Chinese satellite company, pressure at work and his plans for the future. He gave me lots of tips for Xi’an and later turned out to be extremely helpful.

After that, Enrique and I chatted about all sorts of things until late into the night, and since the compartments had no doors, I got to watch the „nightlife“ in the corridor. Every few minutes Chinese security guards crept along the corridor and checked the compartments. One security officer was particularly diligent. He came into our compartment, fished the shoes out from under the bunks and lined them up neatly side by side…

After a restful night, the train pulled into Xi’an shortly after 9 am the next day. Two days earlier I had booked a bed in a hostel, with a free shuttle service from the station. Why a hostel and not another couchsurfing host, as before? I wanted to digest all my Beijing experiences in peace and spend a bit of quiet time with my neglected diary. The anonymity of a hostel would be just the thing for that – how wrong I was, as it later turned out…

But first I scanned the station for my name on a shuttle sign – in vain – there were simply far too many people and signs. I did have the hostel’s address, but even with William’s help it was absolutely impossible to get a taxi. So he kindly helped me find the right bus, insisted on paying for my ticket, rode with me to the right stop and finally walked me right up to the hostel door. I asked him whether he didn’t have to be at work. He said it was no problem, he could make up the time later (he spent more than an hour with me). The helpfulness of some Chinese people never ceases to impress me.