Today was one of the longest days of the trip. I woke up at 5am, and we got on the bus to go to the train station at 6am. The train we took to xi’an was very nice. It had more leg room than the plane, which made it a lot more comfortable. Although it took six hours to travel, it seemed a lot shorter because I slept most of the way.

The first thing we noticed when arriving in Xi’an is that it is much warmer than Beijing. The sun was shining very brightly, and it felt like it was 100 degrees. Luckily, when we got on the bus to go to the hotel they had ice cold water for us.

After resting for around a half an hour, we headed to the drum tower. This building is around 700 years old, and held drums which were beaten to signal that it was time to wake up. All of the buildings around the drum tower are the same height, or shorter, making it really stand out as an important building in the city.

After seeing the drum tower, we had dinner at a famous restaurant where several different presidents have eaten. The main focus of the restaurant is dumplings, and they prepared around twenty different kinds for us to try. They ranged from traditional flavors, like pork, to modern types such as cheese, tomato, and walnut. They were all delicious, but all of the choices made this t

he biggest meal so far.