I'm a celebrity at the Terra Cotta Warriors
Trip Start
Nov 13, 2008
1
6
17
Trip End
Dec 01, 2008
Xi'an,
Shaanxi,
China
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
They were an Australian couple named Damien and PJ. They had been living in London and were recently laid off so they were taking a 5 week journey home through Asia. They knew where to catch the bus, so we followed them. We boarded the 306 for 7 yuan and made the journey out there. We got there roughly 30 minutes later. This site was so impressive. They recently discovered it in 1974 by pure accident when they started drilling a well in the area. The emperor Qin Shi Huang created these statues before his death. There are 2 theories as to why he did this: 1 - he was terrified of the vanquished spirits awaiting him in the after life or 2 - Archaeologists believe that he expected his rule to continue in his death as it had in his life. There are 3 hangers of soldiers. Pit 3 is still being excavated. Pit 2, they didn't do a hot job here because these clay soldiers didn't have heads. They should have been more careful :) Pit 1 is the largest pit and houses thousands of these clay statues. It is quite a site to behold. And this is where I had my first celebrity experience.
I had heard that the local Chinese people will often come up and ask to take pictures with you. We had not had this happen until today. I was walking around by myself and I thought this couple asked me to take their picture. I happily grabbed for their camera and he said no and motioned for me to step back. Then, this young girl swooped in and he snapped a picture. I thought I was done, but then he swooped in and wanted his picture with me. Then, grandma came in - a total of 3 pictures. I don't know what these celebrities complain about. I loved every minute of it.
Leaving the warriors and heading back to the bus, there were of course stands set up with stuff for us to haggle over. I ended up buy another bag because I have bought so much shit. We also bought clay statues of the warriors. We headed back to the bus and grabbed lunch with PJ& Damien in the city. We went to a hole in the wall restaurant. There we encountered another fan. This young boy, maybe 13 years old sat at the table in front of us and just sat there smoking a cigarette and watched us eat our food. He was amazed by us. I asked him if we could smoke and he ran up with am ash tray and lighter. He was very sweet. We parted ways with PJ& Damien and we hit up the markets, as if we need any more shit. We left bare handed, for the first time. We grabbed a taxi to the airport, a real one this time - don't worry Shannon and Mrs. Perian :) No more fake cabs.
We got to the airport and waited for our flight to Shanghai. It was a little longer than I thought, so I had a nice little nap. They did bring me a boxed snack with a snickers bar, so that made me happy. We hit the ground running when we got to the airport. The Maglev, the fast train to the city stopped running at 11PM, or so Nathan told us. We got our bags and were at the train at 10:30PM. It stopped running at 9:30PM. Our travel books are not accurate. So, we grabbed another cab to the hostel and kept our fingers crossed that they would let us check in early.
