Roseville B - China

Just in case you can't hold on, we'll let you know now that we survived our first overnight train. You'll have to read below to find out more...

We've had loads of fun since our last email, so we'll start from our last day in Beijing....

A sleep in was much desired after our non-stop activity, so the plan was to meet in the hotel lobby at 10am. When everyone fessed up, we realised that 11am would be a more appropriate time because most of us were struggling to fit all our shopping in. Seriously, if you saw us, you'd think about 10 members of our group were missing and we were just holding their luggage for them. No joke.

Anyway, we hadn't been for a walk through any of the Hutongs. These are the more traditional back streets of Beijing, where reminders of past times hang in the architecture and design of the buildings. Cars don't fit down most of the alleys, and there are gorgeous door knobs and windows in what would otherwise be a very bleak and boring street.

Knowing we only had about 3 hours to spare until we needed to get back to the hotel to grab our stuff and go to the train station, we started to walk, hopefully in the general direction of the post office. The lanes were very narrow, in the cold winter morning, everything looked grey, but every so often we'd get a glimpse into Chinese life when a door would be open and we could see into their courtyards full of bicycles, fruit and vegetables hanging out to dry along with the washing, and men smoking cigarettes as they solve the mysteries of the world.

Before long, we were hugely distracted though. We'd seen bits of ancient Beijing with the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven etc, and had absorbed the atmosphere of modern China with Tiannenmen Square and our trip to the Olympic sites, but nothing prepared us for the Beijing of the future.

Stepping out of the cold, dark Hutong alley, we found ourselves in what can only be described as being just like a movie set. It was a large plaza stretching for about 3 blocks, with beautiful shops decorated for Christmas on both sides. Christmas carols floated through the air to us, and at one end there was a huge Christmas tree. It felt like we'd stepped out of China and into Europe or the North Pole. There was nothing else to do but start twirling and dancing right there in the street!

The shops weren't "our" sort of shops, in that they were up-market, full-priced places. However, the magic of this plaza engulfed us, and we set off to look at everything. Trams would come down from time to time, with the gentle clanging of the bell asking us to move over so it could pass, and everything just felt so happy.

We decided to spice things up a little and have some fun, so we carefully planned "freezes" to see what would happen. For those of you who don't know what these are, it's when a group of relatively normal looking people walk through a crowded place, and then without any warning, they all stop, frozen in whatever position it was. After some time, they all start moving again. If you haven't seen this sort of thing on YouTube before, it can be quite puzzling, but most people find it rather amusing.

The Christmas carols (which were in English) really helped us achieve our goal. We worked out certain words of a song we would freeze to, and others to unfreeze us. We mixed it up a bit by having our unfreeze happen as us breaking into dance at times, and overall it was rather successful. We had some people follow us down the street, just to see what we might do next. We felt like celebrities. I think China will be glad to see the end of us though.

This seems to have become our thing though, and we broke out the moves in the streets of Xian last night too. More on that later.

So our last day in Beijing was spent looking at this new side we hadn't experienced before. There were people promoting stores dressed as traditional Chinese statues, and really expensive ice cream stores where you could pay up to $AUD10 for one scoop!!! Some of us simply had to sample this ice cream, so see what was so special, and it was confirmed to be pretty good, but the price was still a bit high.

All too soon, we had to return to the hotel via another Hutong to get to the station. It was a little embarrassing to walk into the lobby and see a massive net thrown over our bags. Apparently our stuff couldn't fit in their storage location, so this was the alternative. Please bring empty cars when you pick us up from the airport. Some of us are more guilty than others.

Excitement filled the air as we piled into taxis, wondering what it would be like on the overnight train. Would it be just like the Hogwart's Express from Harry Potter? It was hard to imagine that it could be anything less.

Arriving at the station was a quick reality hit. There were a zillion entrances, and two taxis ended up on one side, and two on the other. After about half an hour, we managed to reunite (don't worry, there were teachers with each group) and then we found our way to our platform.

The stations here are very different to Australian ones. For example, it was about 1km from one side to the other (hence the half hour delay in meeting up with each other), and there are just people everywhere. We know we told you that we found all the population of China on our metro the other week, but they obviously relocated to the train station just to be with us, but it seemed like this time they'd trebled. It was chaos!

We followed the long line to board the train (it was about 50km long, no joke. we should have just walked to Xian!) and were grateful that we had allocated seating, or else we would have been spread out all over the place. It was disappointing to find out that the Hogwart's Express really is a figment of JK Rowling's imagination, and that the Chinese government didn't use her model in designing their trains. There were 6 people to a section, with top, middle and bottom bunks. The squat toilet at the end of the train was a bit daunting, but we all survived with more sleep than we thought. The train rattled past big towns and small towns. One place even looked like Las Vegas, with the Eiffel Tower in Neon lights on top of a building, and lasers beaming everywhere. Not sure where it was, but it looked pretty exciting.

None of us enjoyed the 4am wake up when all the lights were switched on to let people off at a major station, but 7am came around pretty quickly after that and we arrived in Xian.

We didn't really know what to expect, but as the "town" people go to in order to see the Terracotta Warriors, none of us really expected to be hit with a city of 8 million! It's huge!! The station was almost as big as the Beijing one, and walking outside was like coming out of an airport with people everywhere waiting for loved ones. There was even someone waiting for us! We could hardly believe our luck!

This man approached us, identifying us as a school group, and offered us free transfers to any Youth Hostel of our choice. We, being diligent travellers, already had an idea of where to go, and although he said it was good, he told us about a new, nicer one. It all seemed too good to be true, but we thought we'd try our luck.

We arrived at a wonderfully cosy, beautifully set out hostel, and bargained our way into what are probably the most comfortable beds and rooms we've had this whole trip. It was an excellent find!

We set to work finding ways to get to the Terracotta Warriors, and discovered that with all the money we saved on accommodation and transfers, we could afford a private tour with an English guide and everything included. Again, it all seemed to have worked out perfectly.

We set off on the bus at 11am, and visited some workshops showing us how they made the Terracotta Warriors. It was quite interesting to find out that the larger ones had to be fired for 7 days to make them strong enough, and that they've got solid legs for balance. We then had a buffet lunch, in true "tour" style, and boarded the bus again for our last leg before reaching our intended destination.

It was a little disconcerting to drive out of the lunch parking lot, where there were hundreds of buses just like ours, to see dry land all around, and then a massive Pyramid and Sphinx popping up from the landscape. We were confused at first, wondering how on earth we'd manage to miss the fact that the Great Pyramids of Giza were in Xian, when the guide told us that it was a replica (thank goodness!) and it was actually a factory. The Chinese really do go over the top sometimes!!!

We finally arrived at the Terracotta Warriors, and had a long walk to actually get to where they are. It was pretty magnificent to see the three different pits of soldiers, some more excavated than others, and archaeologists at working digging, classifying and reassembling the finds.

The warriors weren't actually found completely intact. Archaeologists have worked meticulously to piece them together, before putting them back in their original location. There are 1087 warriors restored, but between 8000-10000 in total which the Chinese government will get to eventually.

Some of us were disappointed that we couldn't actually walk amongst them, but instead had to walk around them, but it was great to see the work of a crazy emperor.

We returned to Xian and found a noodle bar for dinner, which probably wasn't ranked alongside our favourite food in China so far. We'll do better today.

After dinner, most of us went for a walk through the brightly lit streets. The Chinese really do know how to do their Neon lights, and we were obviously staying close to a nightlife district as the music was blaring too. There were lots of young Chinese people around, curious as to why a bunch of western girls would be there (decked out in our glorious tracksuit pants and boots) in such a trendy area, so we made a few friends. Feeling in good spirits, we put our freezes to work again, and got cheers and applauds. It's amazing what you can get away with in other countries!!! In Australia, we'd be social outcasts for that sort of behaviour!

We tumbled into our comfy beds, and had a great night's sleep. We're all set to check out the Bell Tower, Drum Tower and Muslim Quarter of Xian today.

Knowing that we've only got 5 days (approximately) left, we're starting to get a bit sentimental. We can't believe how quickly the time has passed, even if there have been challenges along the way. We've learned so much and had so many new experiences. Even if our shopping habits don't indicate it, we've all grown up in so many ways, and come to appreciate home more and more. In summary we've learned:

1. We have amazing friends. This trip would not have been possible without our friends here with us for love and support. It's been tough at times, especially when kidneys rock up in your fried rice and it tastes nothing like fried rice back home, and having such a supportive group has made it bearable.

2. Home is an amazing place. Even if we don't appear to appreciate it all the time, China has particularly made us realise that our families are such wonderful people. We wouldn't have had this opportunity without you guys, so thanks. And, we do love you more than we let on.

3. We're pretty lucky individuals. We have so many opportunities back home, many we've taken for granted. We've all decided to make better use of our time and really take advantage of what's on offer. Therefore, please disregard our School Certificate results and wait for our HSC ones!

That's enough mushy stuff for now. Except for maybe this.....

We recently heard a little poem thing that goes as follows:

When you have come to the edge of the light you have known,
And are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown,
Faith is knowing one of two things can happen,
There will be something solid for you to stand on,
Or you will be taught how to fly.

Coming on this trip, you parents probably believed we'd have something solid to stand on. We have the guarantee of Antipodeans, great travel insurance, a leader and teachers, and of course, each other. Arriving in China, everything we knew had disappeared. We had no parents there to pick up the pieces for us, nobody to get us from A to B, we had to be independent, we had to do it ourselves. For us, there wasn't anything solid to stand on, we were flung into the middle of the unknown. Looking back now, we can say we didn't only survive, we thrived. We learned how to fly.

Thank you.

Love always,

Team B. (B is for bold)