Crowded overnight train

Crowded overnight train
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

From Xi'an, I headed west to Xining on an overnight train. Unlike previous train rides, I couldn't get a sleeper berth. Apparently all the trains headed that way originated from Beijing, 18 hours away, and you can only reserve seats for trains that originate from your train station. By the time the train came to Xi'an, at 10:21pm, it was packed. Luckily there were a couple stops were some people cleared out and I was able to find some seats. Did I sleep? A few seconds at a time, until around 9 am when I slept for almost an hour. The ride was supposed to be nine hours long, but for some reason it lasted 14 hours. I headed west, crossing two provinces and entered the Qinghai province, with ears popping from the altitude, and my butt freezing. The scenery was pretty brown and desolate, like the drive from Barstow, California to Las Vegas, Nevada. There were small plots of land with vegetables and mud walls built around them to block out the wind.