Beijing Day 9. Tiananmen Square and travel day to Xi'an

We woke up and had breakfast at the hostel before going to check out Tiananmen Square. A 30 min walk later we were there! My god was it massive!

There were so many people there to see the square and the forbidden city that it actually took away from how powerful the square and the palace could have been.

Having the occasional fun with someone wanting to, or discretely taking our picture we strolled through the palace, taking the occasional picture.

Now for the crazy bit. We had lunch and got a cab driver to get us to the train station, but only after a small detour.

We got to the ticking office an hour before our train was supposed to leave but ended up getting held up, along with everyone else, by some guys with Baltimore Orioles baseball caps. Everyone seemed pretty pissed.

One thing that seems to be mostly accepted in China is cutting. If you are late and you can prove it to the person in front you can usually skip the line. Seems to me that this would only encourage people to be late all the time, but what do I know. I'm just the white guy without any Chinese language skills visiting the country for a week.

Since we only had about 20 min until the train left, Zach took the advice given to him by the people he booked the ticket through and cut most people in line. The guy behind the counter understood and just asked for the passports and issued us our tickets. The guy we cut was furious. Sorry guy.

We got on the train with 5 min to spare and we are currently bound for Xi'an.

We got to Xi'an. After being slightly confused as to which train station we were at we hopped in a cab. Originally the plan was to walk, but the new train station is where we arrived which as the name, North Xi'an Train Staion, implies was north of the city.

The cab driver must be doing car racing on the side. He was weaving in and out of traffic and pedestrians like a crazy person, yet you knew he was in control the whole time. The smooth gear shifts and the smooth braking while coming to a stop in a hurry reenforced this. He was a little unsure of where the hostel was, the general area was correct but the hostel was tucked away in a side street. So I called the hostel on my phone and they helped him get there. It was the coolest yet craziest can ride I've been in.

After a bit of dinner we are going to bed. You can probably imagine that we are completely wiped out from the past couple days. Tomorrow we see the Teracotta Warriors!