"X" destinations

MSN recently came out with an article entitled "the ABC's of travel", which had a destination to visit for each letter of the alphabet (yes, i am the MSN fiend of them all. if it was an article on MSN...i have read it and i will bring it up in daily conversation). anyway, in case you were wondering what destination they chose for "X"-like, out of ALL of the plethora of "X" destinations they could choose, xi'an was the choicest of them all. and i'd like to add that i'm pretty sure it would still be choicest even if it weren't the only "X" destination, because i. LOVED. xi'an. so much that kindra and i are going back on our way back from guilin. our whole trip was picturesque. some of the highlights were:

-our cute hostel tucked away in the cleanest, greenest, and perfectly humid part of town.
-the park right across the street from us with little markets, temples, and the largest water fountain in asia.
-watching the HUGE fountain show at night with colorful lights and blaring chinese music, and then doing cartwheels through the fountain when the security guards weren't there.
-riding a tandem bike around the whole top of the city wall in an hour (BAM!)
-eating, eating, and more eating. what money we saved on hostels and hard bench train rides, we spent on good food. japanese cuisine one night (gosh, i love a good sushi roll), a western cafe with dutch cheese burgers (manna to my taste), subway, chinese pancakes, yummy salads. one of the girls in my group met a guy who had been all over china and upon hearing that we are teaching in industrial taiyuan, he remarked, "yeah, i went there! the food was awful...i couldn't even stomach it!"
-the little coffee shop that we went to every single night to take off our shoes, kick back, listen to jack johnson, play 5 crowns and uno, and eat the best, freshest smoothies you will ever eat in your sorry life (sorry until you try this smoothie, that is).
-the hostel walls that everyone drew on before they left....kindra and i staked out our territory and spent a night creating tributes to our favorite band and artist...the beatles and billy joel. could i have left my mark in xi'an in any better way?
-my ride to xi'an. PSYCH! remember what i said in the last post about buying standing seats to save money?

oh, you naiive, little girl, rachael. never EVER EVER again will i buy anything other than a sleeper on a train over 10 hours long and i would advise anyone to follow suit because that smoke infested cabin with flat slabs of metal as a sad excuse for seats was beyond miserable. luckily, we had bought sleepers on the way back and i was able to sleep for the whole 12 hours even though my face was 6 inches from the ceiling and took about half an hour to climb down for lack of space.

well, it's been real....but i gotta go to bed early to wake up at 4 AM and skype home so i can talk to ben...mother's day means a call from the missionary. can't wait!
(oh, and by going to bed early, i mean i'll get in bed at nine with good intentions, but cave into instant gratification and stay up till 3 reading "the kite runner." why has no one introduced this book to me before? i stayed in bed all day yesterday and read half of it. and then i got mad when i was hungry and had to put it down to eat. what an inconvenience. it's harry potter all over again.)