Day Three

We awoke at different times. I was the first one up, and Will the last- but he had showered the previous night, and was thereby justified in being last. We arrived in time for the tour (I barely finished breakfast on time), and then we got on the tour bus. There were 7 of us- the five in our group were joined by a French man and a German woman. They knew each other and were friends. Our first trip was a museum.

I’ve already given you my spiel on museums, so have this picture of the guys instead.

After the museum (which showcased primitive communism), we went to a factory that produced terracotta warriors. The guide said they were the real replications, and anything we found on the street were made of “mud” (he meant clay) and not fired, and therefore of lesser quality. We spent 5 minutes in a demonstration as to how the soldiers are made, and then shuffled through about 3 or 4 big rooms of all stuff we had seen on Muslim Street, plus furniture and jewelry that I don’t think a terracotta factory made.

The problem was that at the factory, everything was 500% more expensive than on the street. We were lucky to have gone there first, I think. As Non-Dread Tim put it, the quality didn’t matter. “They look the same. …No one will know the difference.” Tim also discovered that despite marked prices, the people in the factory would still bargain with you.

Tim is a bargaining genius, I am sure of it. I hope he hosts his own show on Bravo or something.

After the factory we went into a restaurant that was colder inside than outside, given a meal that was not quite filling, and then went to the warriors! There were many shops outside them, leading us up the path. There was also a dude there who had discovered them.

The warriors are in three pits accessible to the public. The story behind the warriors is kind of interesting- after the emperor died, the public knew where the tomb was. So the enemy, while invading, remembered that there was a tomb with a bunch of statues that had working bronze weapons. Needing to resupply, they went into the caverns and smashed everything, taking the weapons with them. So the warriors you see are all reconstructed. In pit three, they are the best preserved, and they still had paint on them in some places. The best preserved warrior was a kneeling archer with only his feel broken.

After we left these warriors, it was an hour back to the hostel, where we stopped for a bathroom break, and then we went to find dinner. We tried to have the local specialty, cold noodles, and found a place that was far cheaper than any place we had been before. The noodles were about 5 kuai a person. Still, they weren’t as filling as some, so we went into a baozi shop and had some very, very tasty baozi. I like baozi.

Afterwards, Adam and Will went to party with the European couple; Tims were exhausted and had headaches, and I stayed in. Adam and Will came back and then we all went to bed. I’m pretty sure this night we teased Will by hiding his pillow and his blanket and made him find them. Luckily it was not a very big room.