Xi'an

October 24, 2016

Xi'an

Xi'an, China, is an incredible, old city in China. It's where you can go see the terracotta warriors and eat delicious Chinese hamburgers and visit the Muslim Quarter.

But as always, it's an adventure to get anywhere I want to go. I share this adventure with you in case you are ever in a similar situation.

For starters, if you are taking a sleeper train from Wuxi, to Xi'an, go to the South Square of the train station. If you go to the other entrance, you'll have to run as fast as you can for about 15 minutes, or else you'll miss your train. We made it in time.

Second, try to be one of the first in line so you can sleep on the bottom bunk. There is no room to sit at the top. Only room to sleep. Bring lots of candy and books and games to play, and you'll be just fine for the 14 hour trip. Bring lots of tissues and hand sanitizer.

Third, if your train is late, there is no taxi that will pick you up and take you to your hostel because the distance isn't far enough for the taxi driver to make much money. And don't count on your hostel pick-up service waiting for you if your train is late. And pray it's not raining. It was raining, so we were soaked when we finally found our hostel.

Fourth, enjoy! Xi'an is pretty cool. The food was delicious. The Muslim Quarter was so hectic and interesting. The people were friendly.

Looks like Virginia, but no, it's China

My favorite part of the experience was church on Sunday. Just like our branch in Suzhou, there is a Xi'an branch. But Xi'an is part of a huge district that covers most of China. One of the branches in this district is the telephone call branch. Some members live so far away from other members, that they conference call in for church each week. My friend Kim and her husband are in this branch. That branch has callings and Relief Society and Sunday School and everything, but it is all done on a conference call. Anyway, this Sunday was their district conference, so we met at the Xi'an branch president's home and called in to the district conference. Three of the speakers were from Xi'an, so we could see them speaking, but everything else was over the phone! They even had members send in recordings of themselves singing and compiled it all together for a virtual choir. It was so cool. And later, Kim messaged me to ask if I'd been in on the call. Incredible that we were so far away from each other but participating in the same meeting, feeling the same incredible spirit of Christ's love and fellowship with the saints.