I took a 24 hour train ride from Xining, China to Lhasa, Tibet (also in China, although it does not want to be.) This is the highest railway in the world and I had been dying to ride it for a long time. It reaches its highest peak at 5,072 meters above sea level, which is 16,640 feet.
There are several places you can board a train to Lhasa. I made a mistake in thinking Xi’an was the best choice as it was only 24 hours on a train (compared to Beijing at 42 and Chengdu at 43) but I was wrong. Trains from Xi’an only run on odd days in the month I am traveling and I need to leave on an even day. So I had to do a route with a one night “layover” in Xining.
Leaving Xining, I was at the train station really early. I was sitting at an outdoor table, typing on my laptop. I got interrupted by some guy who told me he was learning to speak English and wanted to practice with me. This was painful for me because during this trip, I have indeed experienced people who just wanted to talk to me just because I am Western. But then I had people who feigned interest in simply talking to a Westerner just to try and sell me something. I was not in Xining long enough to figure out which one he was. So my guard instantly went up when he sat down. It turned out he was genuine and really just wanted to speak English with a Westerner.
Once he left, his seat was taken by a woman who wanted the same thing. She asked me if I knew her foreign language teacher “Laura? from Minneapolis?” Oh YEAH! Laura from Minneapolis! Of course I (don’t) know her. This woman was quite interesting to talk to though. She had a baby with her. Her Chinese doctor had told her while she was pregnant, that she should have an abortion because her baby had no heart. She was understandably freaked out. Good ol’ Laura from Minneapolis hooked her up with an American doctor at the Red Cross. It turns out her baby was absolutely fine and had a heart. I saw evidence of this as he was alive in front of me. That is very scary to think about, how health care is in other countries. This woman was advised to abort her perfectly healthy baby on the mistake of a doctor.