Irene our guide, brought us to the new railway station in the north of Xi’an; it was only two years old she told us. It was like the station in Shanghai. We were armed with our tickets now and I noted the price difference from our last trip ($60 – $175 each). We had first class tickets just like we had on our first train trip in China on a D Train from Shangahi to Yichang, but this was DIFFERENT.

We were in Carriage 1 and were met by our hostess and shown to our seats. There were two other people travelling in our carriage.

   

 We were offered green tea and a packet of nibblies, and our tea was re-filled frequently. The washroom facilities were similar to those found in a good hotel. We had a TV we could watch too if we felt like it.

   

This was a non-smoking train and at each stop there was an announcement in both Chinese and English that stated “Welcome to travel by this multiple unit. Smoking is harmful to your health. Smoking is prohibited on this train. Etc, etc”. Fabulous, no face mask needed for this trip.

Travelling at top speed of 295 Km/hr for most of the trip, the countryside we were whizzing past was much prettier today. Perhaps it was because we observed it while sitting in our First Class seats, or because the sun was out which made things look better.

We passed through lots of farming countryside and observed many many new high-rise buildings under construction. There were roads being built going to seemingly nowhere and bridges over waterways, again going nowhere, we presumed these were for future developments. In some of the farming plots we could see graveyard sites which were cropped around. Heavy machinery was used to create a new sunken or raised farming plot. 

These buildings are empty shells, built near a new railway station. We saw 100’s of these, maybe thousands!

   

As with our previous train travel, we observed many train tracks and roads built high up off the ground to allow the farms and residential areas to remain undisturbed.

My tip for train travellers visiting China is to select G trains only, unless of course you’re a smoker and want to be able to continue smoking on your journey through this large country.

I know Mick enjoyed this trip very much. But what’s more, so did I.