Beijing to Xi'an

Saturday, October 23

After spending a week in Beijing discovering all things Chinese we moved on to Xi'an. Xi'an is the center of China and was the capital at one time because of this strategic local.
We took an overnight soft sleeper train from Beijing to Xi'an. Two cabs took the five of us from our Beijing hotel to the Beijing West Train Station. To say Robert and I were nervous taking two cabs to a train station neither of us has been to, hoping our designated meeting spot would prevail, is an understatement. All we had to trust was our plan.

Go into the train station

Go to the waiting room of our train

STAY IN THE DESIGNATED SPOT AND WAIT NO MATTER WHAT!

Plans like that actually work well in a city of 25 million which we discovered three other times during our Beijing week when we were separated for about an hour.

Taylor, Ryan and I were the first to arrive even though our cab left 10 minutes after Robert and Cameron's. We stuck to the plan, and waited in the Waiting Room for Train 8345 to Xi'an along with what seemed like 1000 other travelers. 15 minutes later Robert and Cameron arrived. We were ELATED to see each other!

Together we waited. 45 minutes before our departure people started lining up for boarding. Robert got "a feeling" we were not in the right spot even though this was the Waiting Room. He found an Tourist Information desk which informed him we needed to be in the Soft Seat Waiting Room. His hunch was correct. The Soft Seat Waiting Room was the equivalent of the airline VIP lounges. We were laughing at our ignorance yet thankful that it was that ignorance that helped us stick to the plan and successfully meet up with each other.