After packing into the early morning, it was pretty rough to wake up in the morning. However, I knew I had a 6 hour train ride where I could catch up on sleep so I muscled through it. And that I did. Once I got to my seat and started listening to music it was not very long until I had began sleeping. Going all the way to Xi’an from Beijing is quite the trip and the bullet trains are similar to the subway in the fact that they have multiple stops along the course of the trip. What I am trying to say is that if you were to take New York City’s subway system and spread it out across the size of the United States it would be similar to the bullet train system here. After catching up on sleep for around 4 and a half hours I woke up and began typing out my blogs. It was very therapeutic to be on the window seat traveling through China’s country side at around 200 miles per hour and just typing and enjoying the view. We finally made it to Xi’an and got to our hotel quite quickly as the traffic is much lighter than that of Beijing.

After settling down in our hotel it was off to the Muslim Quarters to have a walk through tour until we arrived at the Drum Tower. The Muslim Quarters is an area in China where the majority of China’s Muslim population resides. It was a very compact market connected by thin one lane roads that pedestrians, cars, bikes, and mopeds all shared. It was extremely hectic but worked and flowed quite well. I could never imagine something of this nature being feasible in the US. The reason all the different modes of travel had to share that one lane road is because the sidewalks are packed with market style vendors selling an array of products and services. Everything ranging from fish pedicures to goat feet to fresh rolled cigarettes and a seemingly endless list of products and services could be found here. Thankfully we had a tour guide because trying to navigate those streets alone would perhaps be the most difficult maze ever, as a tourist. I am sure the locals know the infrastructure like the backs of their hands. After roughly 30 minutes of walking we finally made it to center city where the Drum Tower had been located.

Before going up into the Drum Tower we were treated to excellent family style dinner where the marquee feature were the dumplings. The waiter kept bringing dumplings almost endlessly with a variety of different stuffings from celery to shrimp to pork we had an excellent array of dumplings. Culturally, it was quite interesting because these extreme dumpling centered dinner have been a part of Chinese culture for over 1000 years.

After enjoying another delicious meal, we were finally off to the Drum Tower. Being in the center city, once we got to the top, the views were incredible. It was not an extremely tall building but regardless it was beautiful. The Drum Tower along with all the other historical sites we have visited had impeccable architecture and design as well as an abundance of intricate patterned paintings everywhere they could paint. The inside of the tower housed a museum including all different types of artifacts from a multitude of different dynasties. And the outsides included a ton of various drums (what else!) for all different seasons (for example, Summer Solstice).

Now it was time for us to head back to the hotel and of course we did so by walking back through the Muslim Quarters. This time, it was much more packed. It was absurd, not in a negative way, just nothing like I have ever seen before. Plus, at night, all the vendors had their exuberant, bright lights on. Within all the craziness going on at the time there was also beauty in the shear fact that everything was coherently functioning. Pair that with all the beautiful smells and it was simply an amazing experience.

Tomorrow we will be headed off to a village to interact and play with local, underprivileged children.