Our destination was Xi'an, the city made famous by the Terracotta Warriors that were unearthed in the 70's not far from town. We had read that Xi'an was a big city, about 6 million people, and that it had the usual smattering of temples and pagodas. We didn't know what else to expect.

Our train pulled out of the station at 3:20 PM. Right on time. We had booked "hard sleeper" seats, and when we found our car we were pleasantly surprised. It was a double-decker car; each level had a hallway running down one side and a series of small door less compartments down the other. Each compartment held 4 beds (2 bunks) and there one our bunks were crisp white sheets, a blanket, and a pillow. All was clean and neat.

We made a few stops along the way to pick up more passengers, but our little compartment was full right from the start. Opposite my bed was an older gentleman, a pudgy guy dressed in a blue Mao suit. Above him in the top bunk was a well dressed fellow whose cell phone beeped all night. Around dinner time, Sarah pulled out our Ritz crackers with peanut butter, but the smiling Mao guy felt sorry for us and shared some of his hard boiled eggs.

Upstairs in our car was the official "Broadcast Booth" for the train. Inside a woman in a very official looking uniform sat behind a microphone and cassette player. I have no idea what she said, but over the course of our 16 hour train ride she read announcements for at least 3-4 hours. Guess it couldn't have been that important, though, because Sarah and I made it to Xi'an without a hitch. In between her frequent updates, she played a very wide range of music. I think we got everything from Lionel Richie (the lovely "Say You, Say Me"), to Chinese pop, to some ballad from "Dirty Dancing." But most important, when the lights went out at 10:00, they turned the music off.

Unfortunately, lights out was also when the loud guys in the next compartment got even louder. Then they spilled into the hallway, and two of them sat right in front of our open doorway and talked at full volume for hours. I've been amazed at this lack of common courtesy, especially amongst the middle-aged men. Many times we've been awoken early or kept up late by their loud conversation and yelling. It's not like they don't you are there. They will look right at you at their yelling something-or-other to their buddy standing three feet away. Politically, I guess I should call it a "cultural difference," but in reality it seems to me more like rude, selfish behavior. Just because the whole country does it doesn't make it right.

We pulled into Xi'an early Tuesday morning, around 6:30. Immediately we were accosted by touts selling taxi rides, hotels, and tours. A few had even snuck onto our train car before we got off. We ignored them as best we could, walked a few blocks in the rain to get rid of them, and then hopped in a $.80 taxi across town to a hotel we'd picked out of our guide book. The lobby was gorgeous, the room was mildly gross but adequate, and after a bit of haggling we settled on a price. This is where things get good. . .

Our room was certainly nothing to brag about, but it had a TV that I flipped on while Sarah was in the shower. I was mindlessly channel surfing, flipping past blabbering Chinese channels one after the other when suddenly I heard some english. I flipped back to it and saw that it was ESPN! But it gets better. . .

We had ESPN on while we were getting ready. It was just showing Korean bowling or something, but it was nice to hear some english. Then, at the stroke of 9:00 AM they cut LIVE MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBAll --- Vikes vs. Tampa!

Without any discussion whatsoever, Sarah and I dropped our backpacks and plopped down on our beds to watch the game. It was like a little gift from Buddha. Three hours of live Vikings coverage. I don't think we spoke the entire game, just sat their with big grins on our faces. You have to understand how desperate I've been for football (they day before Sarah caught me humming the Fox pre-game show them). It was a nice three hours, but it ended too quickly. At exactly Noon (with 3:00 left in the game) they cut to a re-run of the Chinese women's Olympic soccer team match against Norway.

With the game over, we were free to explore the city. Xi'an is an old capital of China and it has a fully restored wall around the inner city. Today the city extends miles beyond the wall, but we spent most of our time within the central area. We walked down the main street that runs east-west through the city. We saw a bustling, clean, suprisingly western city. It was all shops and restaurants that looked like they were doing good business. After 1/2 hour we reached the center of Xi'an and the Belltower, a large fortress like thing sitting in a roundabout at the intersection of the main north-south and east-west roads. It was an impressive building, but we decided not to pay the admission fee to go up.

Instead, we headed over to the Muslim Quarter, what was to become our favorite part of Xi'an (other than their excellent sports coverage. A millenium ago, traders along the Silk Road had brought Islam to China. Still today, a large population of Muslims live along the old Silk Road. In Xi'an, most settled in the northwest corner of the inner city. We headed down a narrow alley and immediately left the western world of modern shops. We stepped back in time. Crowded along narrow streets were hundreds of food stands, butchers, fruit vendors, spice traders, and nut salesmen. Cooks fried bread over large metal drums filled with coal. Giant vats of mutton stew bubbled and dripped into the coals. Parts of it where filthy with grime and garbage, and although the people lived in small huts and rickety old brick buildings they were smiling and energetic.

We ordered some fried rice and ate it steaming hot, sitting on little stools that stood about 6 inches off the ground. We continued through the Muslim Quarter, completely enchanted (aka "lost") by the twisting alleys and streets. For block and blocks it was the same mesmerizing scene. Eventually we found ourselves at the Great Mosque and took a quick walk through its courtyards. Non-Muslims aren't allowed in the main building itself, but it was still interesting to see the mix of Chinese architecture with Muslim writing and worship.

The next day we got up early to catch our one-day tour of the sites east of Xi'an. We've generally been avoided organized tours, but for things like this -- where you need transportation over a wide area -- it seemed pretty efficient. We would travel to 4 or 5 historical sites. An no waiting for public busses in the rain. We boarded our bus with fellow travellers (mainly Germans and Dutch) and first went to the Big Goose Pagoda, Xi'an's own Leaning Tower of Pisa. We arrived their in the pouring rain, shuffled around the base for a while, and then returned to our bus. I was reminded why I didn't like tour groups as we waited 20 minutes for a Dutchman in our group who'd wandered away.

Strangely enough, our next stop wasn't on the schedule in the brochure. With a weak excuse from our guide of "Now we go show you how warrior are made" we pulled into the state-owned gift store. The elevator was supposedly broken, so they marched our group through the rug store, the gem store, the lacquer furniture store, and then finally the terracotta warrior reproduction store, where we heard a bad 2-minute demo of how warriors were made. Then we were told to meet at the bus in 45 minutes. For a bunch of communists, they're sure jumping on the 'ol Capitalism bandwagon.

The rest of the day went a little smoother. The next stop was the Banpo Neolithic Village, which was neat to see. It's the remains of an ancient settlement that was found a short way from present day Xi['an. All you can see are post holes and storage pits in dusty red clay, but it's an interesting site. We were free to walk around at our leisure, before meeting (naturally) at the gift shop. Then cam a short drive to lunch, which was really good except for the fact that we were asked to meet in the gift shop, and then finally we left for the main attraction -- the Terracotta Warriors.

Enough has been written about the warriors, so I'll spare you all the historical facts and figures. Three things surprised me. First, I was surprised by the large size of the site. Second, I was surprised by how little excavation had been done. Third, I hadn't realized that three separate tombs had been found. The main chamber, the one that gets all the press, is absolutely immense. I'd guess it's about 300 meters long by 100 wide. Only the first 20-25% has been completely excavated, and of that portion on a small amount that been restored into the amazing warrior figures that are so familiar to any subscriber of National Geographic. There is a second, separate, enormous chamber that has had almost no excavation done, and third smaller one that has been mostly exposed. All in all is was an impressive site, though I wished we'd been given more that the 2 hours to explore. We met in the gift shop, where one of the original 3 farmers who stumbled onto the site while digging a well was signing books. I would have liked to get one, but on principal I decided to give our tour company the satisfaction of my buying one.

Our last day in Xi'an we toured the Shaanxi History Museum. It did a pretty good job of showing the artifacts dating back 200,000 years, but like all museums in China the exhibits were dusty and ill-cared for. Next we climbed up onto the Xi'an wall for a nice stroll along the south side of the old city. Finally, we returned to the Muslim Quarter for a walk through the tangled maze of street life.