Still loving China so far.

I am loving China so far. People here are amazingly friendly - and it's sincere friendliness. I'll have to preface this whole thing by saying that almost nobody speaks English here. It's the first time in this whole trip that I can't walk up to any old random stranger and assume they speak enough to get me by. I feel like a total foreigner, and I love it. But at the same time, I'm not a target. I'm the only foreigner I see every time I leave the hostel, and yet nobody tries to chase me down and sell me stuff. It's like the entirety of Xi'an could care less that I'm here. I'm not a curiosity, I'm not a walking wallet, I'm just one more person in the crowd. Yay!! The only time people called me out was when I wandered through the Muslim Quarter, which is basically a big market where such things are to be expected. But walking down the street, I'm left alone. Completely alone, in fact, because even the billboards aren't speaking to me - I can't read a single one of them! Occasionally a store will have a sign in Roman characters, but even that is usually just a transliteration like Bei Jin Jie rather than "Noodle Shop."
Anyway, nobody speaks English. At one point I got a little lost and wandered into a restaurant that had a sign that said "Pizza!" hoping somebody spoke enough English to set me straight, and of course nobody did. But rather than say "tough luck," they called an English speaking friend who gave me verbal directions, then they handed me a map (all in Chinese), then gave me gestured directions, and then one of the waiters actually walked me down the street until we were within sight of the first landmark, pointed it out, gestured to the right, and then smiled and sent me on my way. He wasn't expecting a kickback or anything, just a nice guy making sure I didn't get lost again. It blew my mind. Then, when I'd gotten myself way out of town to see the jumping-off point for the Silk Road (which is a bit out of the main center), I sauntered up to the bus stop, now with my handy new map in hand, smiled, and pointed to where I wanted to go. A couple people pointed to some bus numbers, then when one of them arrived, pretty much took me by the arm and put me on it. Such kindness and hospitality blows my mind. Thank you, China!!
And I'm really excited for tomorrow, because guess who's going to go see some Terra Cotta Warriors?? Me!! Can't wait!