"It's not the end

Not the kingdom come

It is the journey that matters, the distant wanderer

Call of the wild

In me forever and ever and ever forever

Wanderlust"

--Tuomas Holopainen

God, I can't believe how much it is raining in Xi'an right now. I've arrived this morning and it was already pouring already and there is no sign of any improvement in the weather anytime soon. Yesterday was my last day in Beijing. The morning was spent paying bills online, making more travel reservations and so on. In the afternoon I got the chance to visit the Beijing University campus, located in North West Beijing. It is a nice looking campus, with thousands of students riding their bicycles from building to building. Got to see many westerners students there too. I guess Beijing University, after years of closure to the outside, has become a major magnet not only to the brightest in China, but to people across the world. After touring Beijing University, I headed to the Summer palace, located nearby. As everyone know, I am not the biggest fan of major touristic attractions by a long shot. I almost never find major touristic attractions worth the visit. Well, I will make one rare exception for the Summer Palace. It is absolutely breathtaking. If there is one touristic spot in Beijing Worth visiting, that would be the summer palace.

After the summer palace, I meet Zhang for alast dinner together before I hop on a train to Xi'an, the old capital of China. He takes me to a GREAT vegetarian restaurant, where we are served all types of fake meats and sausages. All made of soy. Great food indeed.

The West Beijing train station is HUGE and very crowded. Everyone needs to have their bags x-rayed before we are allowed in, so the queues are large. In China, it seems that queues do not grow in lengh, but in width, since the Chinese do not seem to understand the concept of falling in line. Everyone piles up on the front of the lines, trying to cut their way thru.

Once inside, I meet a few other western backpackers also waiting for the train to Xi'an. We stick together in oder to gain some confidence, since being stared at by thousands of chinese travelers can be very intimidating.

Hate to cut the report short, but my scheduled Internet time is alomost over. I will relate the train trip in detail on the next post.