We left Xi'an by train on Wednesday evening, December 30 and found ourselves the sole occupants of our Z-train compartment intended for four passengers. While we couldn't see much of China's countryside during the 11 and a half hour ride, since it was an overnight train, but it was still a nice experience and an enjoyable way to relax at the end of another long day in China. The only downfall of the train trip was that there was no food served on board, so we were left to subsist on dried fruit and walnuts.
We arrived back in Beijing early in the morning of the and were instantly reminded of the frigid temperatures, a high of 11 degrees fahrenheit, as we walked back to our hostel. We spent the day, in layers - for me an undershirt, t-shirt, fleece and jacket, two pairs of pants, hat, gloves and scarf with only my eyes showing, yet still finding myself unable to move my fingers - wandering around the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, before making the decision to return to our hostel around 5 in the afternoon before the setting of the sun and an even further drop in temperature.
We had had big plans to spend New Year's Eve at a local bar, ringing in the New Year with the Chinese and other fellow traveler’s, but we wound up eating dinner - our one and only real, authentic Chinese meal in China - at a restaurant across the street from our hostel, watching a New Year's Eve special on Chinese TV and crashing around 12:01 a.m. on the first of the new year. It wasn't exactly a memorable experience, but we were warm, which was all that mattered to me at that point. We were to have plenty more memorable experiences in the cold before the trip was over.
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