So we kinda survived our first overnight train. Last night after we had grabbed some dinner we headed back to our hostel to retrieve our luggage, then trekked back the the main road near subway. All we knew was the general location of the bus stop, and that we needed to get on bus 67. We found the stop pretty easily (bus stops here are really well labelled and there are queues painted on the ground for each bus) and our bus came within 10 minutes. Then we realized we didn't know the name of the stop we were supposed to get off at.. It turned out okay though because Beijing west railway station is massive and very hard to miss. everything was well laid out and we found our waiting bay quickly. We boarded the train about 20 minutes later.
Our class was 'soft sleeper'. It has 4 small beds (2 upper bunks and 2 lower) and a door that closes. Next ticket down is 'hard sleeper' with 6 bunks per room and no door, and then there is just your classic seats. Mom and I both had bottom bunk tickets, and we were anxious to see who had our top bunks. We found our compartment and there was a girl in her mid 20's above moms bunk. She said hi but her English wasn't the strongest. It was about 5 minutes before the train left when our final roommate rolled in.. A middle-aged balding Chinese man. He took no time to sit down on my bunk and just sit there, drinking a strange drink, wiping his sweaty head with hand then rubbing his hand on my bed sheets. That went on for about 10 minutes and mom and I kept exchanging glances. Then he gathered up his small English vocabulary and started firing questions at me. The girl came down, sat on mom's bunk, and joined in. Using paper, pen, and a translator on the girl's phone, they drilled me for about 2 hours. Where are you from? Do you go to school? Do you learn Chinese in school? How much did your shoes cost? Your camera? Your iPod? Where have you been? Where did you stay? How much did it cost? Where are you going? Can we see your pictures? Can we take pictures with you? I think you get the idea. We were really tired and at first we were weirded out at how social this situation was, but we soon found out they were honestly very curious and meant us well. They both asked for my email address to keep in touch, and so I could send them the photos we had taken together. They even gave me some Chinese lessons. Finally, after they had gone through and analyzed all the items I had with me on the bedside table, mom and I dictated it was bedtime. Just got to get this out there, despite how nice they were, the man snored like a chainsaw, making sleeping a challenge.
Anyway, we got up in the morning, no longer in Beijing but in Xian. Our plan of the day was to catch a bus to the second train station in Xian, Xian North, and take the bullet train to one of china's holy mountains, Mt. Huashan. Easier said then done apparently because there were about 50 busses surrounding the train station, not many people spoke English or were inclined to help us, and no one seemed to know where the north station was, as it is very new. We gave in and tried to find a taxi, but we couldn't even get it across to them. Finally we went to a hotel and the concierge wrote down the name of the station in Chinese, we showed it to a driver, and we were on our way. Well, he got lost a couple of times. But we made it after about an hour.
We got there at 10 to find the train to huashan had just left. And the next train was in 3 1/2 hours. We considered waiting, but it just seemed like such a waste of time. So we had a struggle trying to buy 10am tickets for the next morning with the intention of metroing out and spending the day on the mountain. It ended with us very confused and people not speaking English, but a girl randomly decided to help us and brought us upstairs to a certain booth that was able to help us get our tickets. We are now headed to our hostel in Xian by metro. It's been a long morning!