The Summer Palace and a trip to Xi'an

Today I visited the Summer Palace which is a sprawling oasis. In fact, once inside it is easy to forget where Beijing is. The park is filled with buildings and park space as well as temples. The park was built in 1750 making it one of the "newest" sights that I had seen in China, and shows a great example of imperial garden style. The whole park is quite large and I spent the better part of 4 hours there before it was time for me to get back into the city to get ready to leave for Xi'An.

After I returned to my hotel I went out to the Beijing West Station, which is the largest in Beijing. There were quite literally thousands of people at the station and after finally getting into the station I found my way to the waiting room where I would wait until my train was called. I travelled on China's newest type of overnight train which was a Z-class train. The majority of the train was filled with tourists, including a large group of teenagers from the UK on an exchange. The journey lasted about 12 hours. I was in a rather nice compartment that included 2 beds and a bathroom. I arrived rested and refreshed in Xi'an ready to start exploring.