Chinese Tea Culture

This morning, I got up at 6 a.m. so that I could arrive in Xi'an before the day's intense heat set in. I set off shortly before 7 a.m., and after one very short climb, it was downhill all the way to Xi'an.

Near the airport, I took a longer break. On short notice, I contacted a friend in Xi'an, and it turned out she would be able to meet me that evening. We had first met in Sichuan Province in 2014, when Jiabin and I were also traveling by bicycle. I then looked into whether I could replace the hotel I had booked on the outskirts of Xi'an with something more conveniently located, but I couldn't find anything that seemed better overall. Since I would be continuing my journey the next morning, staying outside the city was actually more practical anyway.

So I continued on my way just as a Korean Air plane passed overhead—greetings from Korea, so to speak. The roads and bicycle paths were excellent. As long as I kept moving, it wasn't nearly as hot as I had feared. Although my hotel search had delayed me a little, I still arrived at the hotel shortly after 1 p.m. In the afternoon, I rested and even took a short nap before heading out for something to eat.

Just as I finished eating, Dongcui messaged me to ask whether I had arrived. She must be free now, I thought. But it turned out that we had both misunderstood each other. She had been waiting for me to tell her that I had arrived, while I had been waiting for her to finish the appointment she had previously told me about and message me when she was available.

Even by taxi, the trip into the city took much longer than expected—about 45 minutes. As a result, we didn't meet until 8:30 p.m., even though she had actually been free since 4 p.m. That was really a pity. Still, we made the most of the shorter time we had together. Together with one of her close friends, we went to a teahouse, giving me another opportunity to experience Chinese tea culture.

We talked for a very long time about all kinds of different topics and had a wonderful evening together. By the time I got back to my hotel, however, it was almost 1 a.m. We'll see whether I'll manage to get up early tomorrow—otherwise, it'll simply be even hotter...