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28 August: Yulin

Another early morning, they weren't getting any easier, but we had a lot to do and little time to do it in. We finished up and went outside to find something to eat, the stall just opposite the bus station was always a good bet, selling a variety of steamed dumplings. We opted this time for two beef and two other vegetable. We got the beef but no vegetable, rather chicken although these were also nice. They also had a type of warm milk in a plastic container which we bought one of, the soya milk was okay, but it sure ain't milk as we know it! We walked a little further to the south wall entrance to buy our tickets to walk on the wall. Unfortunately they only opened at 08h00 and it was now 07h00! We walked back to the guest house to wait until the time came, I had looked the evening before on Ernst & Young's website and seen that there were some new jobs advertised. I proceeded to apply for them while waiting for 08h00 to come. When the time came we were standing at the gate ready to buy our tickets, Y40 each!

We walked up the steps only to be met by some joggers preparing for a race on the wall, Leanne's face lit up at the sight and she almost wanted to stay another day just to jog with them! The city wall was an immense piece of work, 12m high, 18m wide and 14km all round the city with its own moat (not the whole way around the wall anymore), built in 1370 during the Ming dynasty. Walking round the wall takes and estimated 4 hours, we decided to rent a tandem bike, rather than individual bikes to make the ride somewhat more memorable. It was a good decision as we were able to chat all the way round the wall and Leanne (who sat at the back) could take video as we cycled. We however had only 100 minutes to complete the 14km's around the city wall, otherwise you have to pay extra for the bikes. I swear they do this because you only marginally make it or not and the Chinese aren't known for their athleticism, hence they most probably always have to pay extra. Just to get an idea of Xi'an's former grandeur, consider this: during the Tang dynasty the city walls originally enclosed 83 square kilometers, an area 7 times larger than the current city center!

The ride round the wall was an amazing experience, riding on a wall where men had patrolled 500 years earlier with swords and bow and arrow to safeguard a city from outside attack. Most of the large stones/rocks about 50cm long, 30cm wide (height unknown), still had their Chinese carvings from years past, others had worn off with time. To think that at one stage from these walls they would have had unobscured views of all who approached, now this was obstructed by skyscrapers. Strangely we noted that only in Xi'an did the skyscrapers often have what looked like a traditional Chinese temple or roof atop of them. It made for interesting viewing to say the least. As we cycled round the wall we would regularly come across guard towers, being a small building built on part of the wall, but exquisitely so.

We finally made the halfway mark in just under 45 minutes, reaching the North gate from where we could look down onto the railway station. We had a few hours before we too would have to stand in the queue to board our train. The station looked like an ants nest, people everywhere running around like mad ants, intercoms blaring announcing the arrival and departure of trains. We continued on to the West gate where we were able to look down at what could only have been a park next to the moat. There were children playing while adults practiced their martial arts or tai chi in small groups. Just across from them a few musicians had gathered and were playing some songs. It was barely past 09h00, but from what we saw it looked like regular routines for these locals.

We continued on, now with less time than we had anticipated to have left, but we soon realized the finish line lay not far ahead of us. Along the way we passed many of the runners, in an hour they still hadn't come far, but carrying their flags and running in groups of 5 or so it was obvious this was more of a fun run than a race. We crossed the finish line meant more for them than for us and handed the bike back, we had but 10 minutes to spare. We walked back to the guest house, showered and packed, time was short and we still needed to exchange books and get our deposit back. Packed and ready to go we left the bags at the entrance while exchanging the books, their policy was 2 for 1, but while I had 2 books Leanne only had 1 1500 pager, we tried to explain that it was two books in its own right and after 10 minutes succeeded.

Our time was now really limited, we had 55 minutes to get to the station before our train left and the trip on the local bus alone was 20 minutes. We collected the deposit and made our way to the bus stop, waiting at the wrong one for 5 minutes before realizing that the buses passed us so we walked 20m down the road. The bus came and we boarded heading to the station, although I think it took a longer route there. Traffic was heavier than we had anticipated and the feeling that we had enough time soon dissipated.

Then the inevitable happened, we hit a dead stop and the fact that our bus driver had absolute inner peace with no desire to overtake slow moving traffic, made it only worse. We stood there for the better part of 15 minutes counting down the seconds, it soon became evident that we weren't going to make it in time on the bus. Leanne had been talking to one of the passengers about how to get to the station and in the end he said he would help us as we weren't going to make it staying on the bus. All three of us jumped off the bus and started to run to the station. We had 10 minutes to cover a distance of 3km to the station, carrying all our bags, there would be no assistance in the form of taxi's or motorcycles, it was up to our legs to get us there in time. We had been standing in the bus for 45 minutes each with the better part of 20 to 25kg and that had already drained our energy and weakened our knees.

We jumped off and made a run for it, the man who had explained how to get there anticipating our urgency and joined in leading us there. After a while of running he assisted Leanne by taking her smaller bag as we ran, it was excruciating and utterly draining! It felt like we were waddling forward, rather than moving swiftly although it seeped all that we had in us. I had thought we had gotten fitter along the way with all the walking, but it felt as though there was no way I could make it, surprisingly Leanne managed quite well and the person who was encouraged to keep up by the man leading us was me! We reached the station, not 3 minutes to spare, pushing through the crowds and thanking the man over and over again, we made our way to the waiting room. It was completely full with passengers waiting to board, they were all waiting for the same train as us. Lowering our bags to the floor, we almost joined them but managed to stay erect in the crowd. We were sweat drenched and the Chinese made no secret of their stares, then again I guess I would have done the same. We were soon joined by others equally sweat drenched who had also been caught up in the traffic. What a blessing that the train was late, we would have barely made it had it been on time like every other train we had taken!

We waited just under an hour, before boarding the train around 12h30 and settling into our lower level bunk beds. Problem with these beds are that even though you pay more for them, they soon become public property and everyone in the compartment thinks it only obvious that they can come and sit on your bed. We had planed to laze on our beds reading, but this was not to be. The man sat on my bed working on his laptop after which he started lying on my blanket and cushion and eating all sorts of foods, from a huge bread with fillings, to fruit and cookies! Throwing papers and bottles under my bed, that was the last straw and I handed him the bin to place his rubbish in, that won us a polite response and he placed his rubbish in it. However his feet soon exited his shoes and ended up on my bed! Oh well, you're in their country and some of them spit on the floor where you walk, at least he had socks on.

Anyway, enough of the moaning, we were able to catch up on making notes on days past, writing down key words of what stood out to assist when the time came to write in our diaries, we would need two days at least to accomplish that! After this he had gotten up and we were able to annex that which belonged to us. We decided to take a short nap, seeing as it had been a fun filled day already and we were on the tired side of life. We ended up sleeping more than 2 hours and awoke just before 18h00, playing some cards before having our dinner of noodles and dried fruits. There after it was another few games of cards before we settled into our newly acquired books. The lights to our cabin went off just after 22h00, so we left for the bathroom to brush our teeth and remove our contacts before settling into our beds for another good sleep. All the sleep we had missed out on the previous few days were soon resupplied by one day of re-energizing.