Bullet train to Xian

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Geo: 34.27, 108.9

Off in the taxi at 5:30 am to one of Beijing's five train stations. On our way we passed Tianamen Square where thousands of people were waiting for the changing of the guards. The train station was huge be we found our way thru security and into our assigned waiting room. The room was packed with many other passengers. The bullet train left exactly at 7 am and was a smooth ride even at 300 k an hour. The smog was terrible throughout our train ride, with visibility little more than 500m.
Upon arrival in Xi'an we took a 30 minute metro ride from the train station and then walked the four blocks to our hotel in the rain. During that whole trip we did not see another Caucasian until we were one block from our hotel.
After getting settled in our hotel we ventured to find a coffee place. It is a very young population here in Xian, but there are not many coffee joints. We finally found a place but the coffee was not good. We miss our Atenas coffee spot.
Later in the evening we went out for dinner and we were quite a novelty at a local chinese food and steak house. No one spoken english and we only know 'thank you' in chinese. But we managed and the meal was nice.

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[photolera]

Barry has a story about those chicken feet (from Hongkong).