The train station was vast.

Very dirty and very crowded.

Hundreds of people were waiting outside. I wasn't sure if that was because they had trains leaving in several hours time, or they were waiting for friends and family, or some other reason, but there were people everywhere.

Even little home-cooked style food stands and a couple of portaloos.

Xian Train Station

Went to the first ticket counter and asked about a Beijing train. Each ticket counter had long rails on either side that made it hard to get there with a suitcase, but no way was I leaving it out of my sight.

After explaining what I wanted, the woman held up a sign that had some Chinese on it plus an arrow and "100 m" on it.

Obviously I had to go to another counter.

I asked again for a Beijing train. Got a soft sleeper ticket for about 400 RMB (80 AUD).

The train wasn't leaving for two and a half hours, so I had to amuse myself.

Went to a nearby McDonald's.

There was a sign out the front saying internet cafe, but it turned out to be another company in the same building: a dingy little room absolutely full of cigarette smoke.

No thanks.

Went to Maccas, ordered a soft serve cone, and wasted about half an hour.

Toilets there were the Chinese squat style as well unfortunately.

Still had ages left, so went for a walk to try to find a bar and someone who spoke English to have a chat to.

Nothing nearby.

Stopped at a fruit stand and bought an apple and a weird tomato, apple, and passionfruit drink for something different, then headed to the train station.

There was a big waiting hall inside, with lots of confusing signs.

Decided to sit in the main one.

Out of the hundreds of people, I was the only white one.

China has got to be one of the most homogenous countries on earth!

After about an hour, my train's details appeared on the big display.

Took a while to decipher it, but found my way to the right area and then the right platform.

The next challenge was finding my sleeper.

The ticket had the numbers 3 and 9 on it, which I assumed had something to do with it. Question was, did it mean platform (probably not), carriage (probably, but if so which), room number (probably, but not sure), or bed number (possibly).

Walked to the staff at each carriage and showed them my ticket. Each one pointed in the correct direction. Must have done that five or six times before they said yes.

Went into a compartment with a matching number and there was noone in it, so I thought I'd stay there.

Then I heard someone coming, so I opened the door to ask them.

Yes, it means bed number, not compartment.

Anyway, finally found my bed.

There was one other person in the compartment and the two upper beds were empty.

Had a good chat to the guy.

His name was Fu, and he was from Xian. He worked as an aerospace engineer, testing freight planes.

He spoke about a new Chinese state-owned aircraft company called Comac who were trying to build a 60-seater regional plane.

He said he'd been to see the Terracotta Army over 20 times.

I told him we had caves in Naracoorte that I'd been to see lots of times, and that I knew how it felt!

Learned that they are building a new train station in North Xian, that will be further out than the current one, and would presumably be linked by subway. (Damn, no more moped taxi rides!)

Spent ages talking about Chinese language and pronunciation. Learned a bit. For example, Xian is said more like Shee-aan than Shee-ahn, but the "x" is said from further back in the mouth than "sh".

Also, the third tone (the one that goes down then up) is more about being deeper and longer than the other tones; it's not so important that it goes down first, provided it starts low. I guess the length of the "a" in the third tone is why Shan3 xi is written Shaanxi to differentiate it from Shan1 xi.

Then he told me that in the military, they say "yao" for one and "liang" for two, so to avoid confusion, a bit like how in German they "zwo" for two rather "zwei" to avoid it being confused with "drei".

I asked if in civilian use, anyone said "yao" to avoid the confusion between "yi" meaning one in Mandarin and two in Cantonese. "No" was the answer. :-)

Had a bit more of a chat and went to sleep.