Saturday, September 12, 2015 ~ Xi’an and the Terracotta Warriors

The breakfast at the hotel this morning was really delicious. It was wonderful to get a full American breakfast buffet for a change!

We met our guide, Victor, in the lobby at 8:30 this morning. The crazy bus driver drove to the ceramics factory that makes knockoffs of the Terracotta warriors. They had many pieces of furniture for sale (which they would gladly ship), ceramic pieces, masks, and Chinese games. 

 
Next we drove about an hour to reach the site of the Terracotta Warriors. Quite a few years ago a farmer found one when he was digging a well. The government paid him a lot of money, took his land, then he was required to work everyday at the site autographing books for tourists. They wouldn’t even let him go on vacation. At 82 he became sick, so they let him go home. He is still alive, but he is very ill.

    
 
There were three huge buildings that held these life sized figures. The first held the most restored figures, and it also showed other figures in the process of being restored. Archeologists from many parts of the world are working on the restoration. It takes six months to restore one figure. We also went into the other buildings, then we had lunch at the cafeteria too. The food wasn’t very good, though.

We walked back to where the driver had supposedly parked, but Victor couldn’t find the bus! He left us in a cool shady spot where we could sit and wait for him. He came back and told us that he had found the bus, but the bus driver wasn’t there. The driver wasn’t answering his phone, so Victor went off to look for him. We had waited an hour when Victor finally returned. He had looked in many cafes, and finally found the driver asleep with his phone turned off!

We couldn’t go to the place we were supposed to go to next because it was almost closing time. We will see it tomorrow. Instead, we went to see the city wall in Xi’an which is the largest city wall in China if I remember right. 

This evening we went to a dinner show where we were served a dumpling dinner. The quantity and quality of the food left a lot to be desired. The dinner was held in a huge theater, and mostly tourists were in attendance. The costumes and technical aspect of the show were good. It was enjoyable and well done. This is certainly a popular tourist attraction.

13964 steps, 5.94 miles