Today we take the bullet train from Chongqing West to Xian North, a journey of less than 5h30.
We took two taxis to the station for the 1057 departure. As it was a big station, getting there an hour before hand gave us less waiting time than at previous stations.
Because Kim booked his ticket separately and later, he was seated a couple of carriages behind.
Arriving at 1620, we found a large car to accommodate all six of us at an inflated price. It cost more than two regular cars. It was one of those situation when I went with the flow but shouldn’t have. There was a bit of traffic in the city centre and we had to walk the last bit to the hotel due to the street markets.
The metro from the railway station to the hotel was nearly free with no changes (transfers) required. And at the city end, the metro station was within sight of the hotel.
Soon after we checked in, a friend from Auckland, Dennis arrived. And within minutes so did the cake that he had ordered for Kim’s birthday, which is today.
We’re back in Xian after 27 years, having visited in 1998 on our first ever trip to China, when the country was completely different. It was very far behind many countries, but now it is way more advanced than many!
Birthday dinner
We asked the hotel concierge for restaurant recommendations and she did an awesome job taking us to a place with a private room.
The clamour as we tried to make the menu choices nearly killed Kim but we eventually agreed on some dishes, all of which were delicious.
Kim’s Birthday dinner.
Dennis’s choice of cake was just superb. It was a stack of crepes interleaved and topped with freshly cut dragonfruit cubes, with not too much cream.
Kim’s birthday cake.
The meal, beer and some spirits for seven people cost CNY511 or NZD119. The waiters in China must think we are poor. We only order exactly what we need and leave nothing wasted.
In China we often see people leaving a quarter of their food behind, sometimes more. In the worst case, we saw people wasting perhaps three-quarters of the food uneaten.