Xi'an/Beijing - Day 3

Sorry for the late post, but got into Beijing late and by the time we got to the hotel is was too late to write a post.  CCAI also had us up early and we headed out for tours in Beijing.  I'll try to get things caught up this evening.

On Thursday morning, Tom picked us up from the hotel and took us to the Xi'an city wall.  It is a very interesting place to visit.  The orignal wall surrounded the interior of the city and ran for approximately 8 miles.  It also had a moat around the exterior of the wall.  Today the wall is much smaller, but still very impressive - I think there is about 3 miles still standing.  We spent a little time and climbed up to the top of the wall.  If you want, you could rent a bicycle and ride the city wall, but we didn't.   We had a long train ride ahead and decided bike - heat - train ride just did not go together.  Running a long the wall is a very nice walkway where familes and older folks exercise.  We had to try out a few of the pieces of equipment.  It was quite fun, and we got a chance to be with a few Chinese folks - we were quite the sight and turned a few heads.  Here a few pictures of the wall and walkway:

Gate to City

Up the Stairs - 77 total steps

Our Guide Tom!

After the wall, we headed to the train station to catch the high speed train to Beijing.  It was located outside of the city and had just opened in the last year in preparation for the Bullet Trains being developed in China.  The train wasn't a bullet train, but a high speed train.  At one point, we were going ~ 150 miles per hour - most of the time ~ 100 miles per hour.  The trains were very clean and you felt like you were on an airplane (that style of seating).  It was interesting that we went to Zhengzhou enroute to Beijing.  This is the city where we will get Maddie on Monday.  At Zhengzhou, everyone had to stand up and turn the seats around.  You pushed a button and spun the seat!  We started at the front of the cabin, but ended up at the back for the remaining trip to Beijing.

We arrived in Beijing around 9:45 PM.  We got off the train and were supposed to meet our Guide George.  However, the display in the train station had the wrong gate listed for our train!  George was at another exit.  We looked like lost puppy dogs and wandered around for a little while figuring George would find us "white" folks among all the asian faces!  We ran into another tour guide who was leading some Germans.  He spoke English as well and we were able to get him to call George our guide on the cell phone - I had been given George's number from Michelle on Monday (Thank goodness!!!!).  George quickly came to our rescue and we safely made it to the hotel.  We got into our rooms around 11:30 PM.

On another note, our luggage had arrived and was at the hotel!!  We now have everything.

Here's a few pictures of the train ride: