Our train to Changchun left at 8.40. We ready to leave a little later than was comfortable but made it in plenty of time to the station. A taxi with two Russian girls in it was driving next to us practically the whole way; we were all doing the thing when white people see each other in China and aren't quite sure what to make of it or do - we especially don't know where to look!
The journey to Changchun was uneventful. At Changchun we bought tickets on to Shenyang that would be going in a hour and a half's time. Originally we had wanted to see Jilin City in Jilin (not the capital though, that's Changchun) for these forest things. But we quickly realised we were running out of time to make it to Xi'an for New Year so, remembering that they had some forest things in Xinjiang too that we could see, we decided to skip them and go straight on to the capital of Liaoning Province, Shenyang. We ate lunch at a Chinese style fastfood restaurant called Favourite Land, then we boarded our train. Our seats weren't directly next to each other so we leaned over the aisle to take a photo of ourselves in Jilin Province, which confused everyone around us. It barely took any time to get to Shenyang, which was another of those places we'd just come to to break up the long travel and to see the capital, so after a while we went on to Dalian where we wanted to spend the night. Originally we had planned to go over to Xingcheng, a preserved Ming village in Liaoning, but because we were going to Xi'an and had seen Pingyao already, we thought going that far out of our way (way out!) was hardly worth it, so we cut it from our plans. The seats to Dalian were a bit more pricey as they were soft seater and so it was fairly comfortable. In Shenyang Station I bought instant noodles for my dinner and had to scoff them like a Chinese person because our train was due, with the entertainment of watching a grandmother help her granddaughter pee all over the floor (gotta love China), but despite my death-defying speed (if you're Chinese, read: normal, possibly slightly sluggish speed) I didn't have time to finish. So no real dinner. Despite the day being pure travelling, we did hit 3 provinces in 1 day, which is pretty damn impressive if you ask me. We wouldn't have been able to do it if he hadn't cut out Jilin City. We arrived at Dalian quite late and went straight to bed.
On the train in Changchun, Jilin Province
Shenyang City, in Liaoning Province
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