We will travel to Xian, the capital of China from 221BC (the Qin Dynasty) to 907 (the Tang Dynasty), at the end of the second week. It is an overnight train ride and a good opportunity to get a little exposure to life in China away from the modern blandishments of Beijing. We will order all the train tickets at the same time, so don't worry about making your own travel arrangements, but you will be responsible for your own fare. (We have been told by Tsinghua University that the cost of the train ticket is RMB417 each way plus a commission fee of RMB20, making the total cost of the train RMB854.)