by Noelle M.
After an eventful couple of days to the beautiful city of Xi’an filled with wonderful visits to several well known sites including the Terracotta Warriors （兵马俑）, the Muslim Quarter （回民街）, and the Xi’an city wall, we now face a full day of traveling back to Beijing. We hit the ground running at 6am (or more so sleepily dragging my feet in my case) as the bus for the train station was to leave at 7am. Many of us went to the hotel breakfast first where we could choose from a variety of delectable savory and sweet options. My favorites were the many different buns with fillings such as red bean, walnut, and custard. We said goodbye to our tour guides, Jasmine and Amy, before spending just a brief 20 minutes of free time in the train station. The approximately four hours spent on the train itself were filled with naps, snacks, listening to music, and whatever else we could do to entertain ourselves. We were given Subway sandwiches for the train ride. My vegetarian one was a thrilling culinary composition of lettuce and cucumbers, with the sporadic punctuation of some mayo spared by Maya.
We de-boarded the train at around 1:30 pm, and took the bus to the same lodging as our prior Beijing stay: Nostalgia Hotel. We then had about 2 hours of free time where we were allowed to explore the surrounding area and learn even more about the daily way of life in Beijing. My friends and I went to the recommended grocery store where we were dazzled by the many unknown snacks, of which we quickly purchased many including speciality flavored Oreos, vegetable crackers, pastries, and much more. Afterwards, we also went to McDonald’s for another quick afternoon snack of fries. I’m not a regular McDonald’s patron in the United States, but it became clear that the Chinese counterpart was an upgrade! We then went to dinner which included many tasty dishes such as tofu, candied sweet potatoes, and snow peas. We finished the night with a birthday celebration for Halsted! We ate some small chocolate cakes and ice cream. Overall, we had a low-key penultimate day of travel filled with lots of snacks, naps, and laughter. See you tomorrow for our last day!
