Departure for Lanzhou

A journey into the train station of Xian

Despite knowing that today we have to get up early, I’m still having trouble waking up. As always, dad shakes me, but this time he really shakes me; I think that there’s an absolute necessity to do so. Yes, today we are taking a train to Lanzhou at 10:30! And now it’s 8:30. Lucky that Liu Jia woke dad up otherwise I’m not sure we would have made the train. Morning shower while dad puts my things away. Now, there is no time to lose. We bring down the most bags we can to the lobby on our way to breakfast; the bags that don’t contain our equipment. I have an omelet with tomatoes, onion and cheese, with a plate of watermelon and orange juice. We head to the station by car and arrive 45 minutes early. We look to see where our train leaves. The place looks like an airport’s departure lounge with people everywhere, some sitting and others standing up. We are surprised that it’s so crowded, but I remember that there are over 1.3 billion Chinese, and this sample in Xian’s train station is nothing compared to the total population. I sit and drop my excessively heavy backpack on the ground. Suddenly, dad leaves and comes back with a kind of luggage trolley on wheels. I am happy and so is my back! We move ahead and observe people’s faces. I notice that that where I’m heading, people are much more tanned and have rounder eyes, in comparison to the place we were before. I move forward and encounter three extraordinary people: an old man dressed like a Hawaiian with a long white beard, next to him a young man dressed pretty much the same way with blonde hair in a pony tail, and finally a girl that I didn’t observe that much. They’re the latest version of hippies. I get closer to them and ask where they’re from: the two men come from Australia and the young woman from England. After a while, we take our things and head towards the train. Settled into our compartment, I want to sleep but dad insists that I eat.