Yes, Even Though it has an X in It, You Pronounce It "She On!"

Greetings from the second stop on our journey, the ancient Chinese capital of Xi'an. We arrived this morning after what amounted to many of our first overnight train ride. As you might imagine, three or four people crammed into sleeper cabs no more than six and a half feet wide aren't able to get a whole lot of sleep; but it was a whole lot of fun.

On our last free day in Beijing on Sunday, most of us took the new high-speed train to Tianjin, the port city closest to Beijing. Thank goodness we had Jeff, one of the terrific Chinese host students, with us because it was next to impossible for us to communicate with anyone there. We all can't understand why, when locals tell them where to go, the cab drivers in every city still don't seem to have any idea where to go. Isn't that part of their job, to know where tourist attractions are? It can make it maddening to travel somewhere in the city. 

Today we took a spin around the 9-mile city wall in Xi'an on rented bikes. The distance wasn't close to the toughest part of the trip. That is reserved for the cobblestone paving on top of the wall, complete with thoughtfully-placed, impossible-to-miss potholes.  

It was such a clear day with little or no visible pollution. That's even more rare than a Beijing driver who doesn't beep the horn every 10 seconds. Tomorrow we've got a full day starting with a visit to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda followed by the Terra Cotta Warriors and a dinner show.