As you cannot get the train directly from Xian to Hong Kong I had to get the train to Guangzhou. The train took 7 and a half hours. This was definitely a food sharing train, I was given a peach and some brown dried things in a packet, not sure what they were but they tasted fine.
The hostel in Guangzhou was definitely the strangest I have stayed in. It felt like I was staying in some ones apartment. The father sat in the corner and painted. The mother seemed to be the cleaner and the daughter dealt with the bookings. Most of the other guests were young Chinese girls who had moved to Guangzhou for work or to look for work and seemed to be permanent residents of the hostel, and some seemed to have been there so long they were part of the family.
