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Today I decided to take a tour to the Terra-Cotta Warriors. I should of stuck to my original plan and did it myself. So much wasted time and forced shopping!
With that being said, I was picked up at my hotel and was part of a group of 7. We visited a small archeological site called Banpo Village. This village was discovered when they were planning to build a power plant in the area in 1957. A village from about 6000 years ago. The women were most powerful in this village. There was no marriage and women would have different men depending on which ones were out hunting. There was a script on the wall and it said “one knows his mother, not knowing his father”.
Next up was the terra-cotta warrior factory which was a huge waste of time and was forced to walk through a store where everything was at least 5 times the price you can get it in the market. Then room after room of oriental wood furniture that was priced in the thousands.... I guess if that is your style and you have $10,000 to pay for a table then all the power to you! I was not happy about this part as I felt it had nothing to do with the warriors and the reason we were on the tour. We did have lunch here which was quite good.
We continued on to the Terra-Cotta Warriors. The belief was that whatever you were buried with you could take to the afterlife so the Emperor spent almost 40 years preparing his mausoleum. He believed the warriors would protect him in the afterlife. The warriors were not buried with the Emperor so the warriors were damaged and weapons were stolen from them. A Terra-Cotta Warrior head was found in 1974 by a farmer who was digging a well and believed it to be a sort of Buhda and they wanted to make sure it was dealt with respectfully as I have mentioned before they are very superstitious. They brought it to government officials who also were not sure what it was so they sent an archeological team to the area and this army of 6000 warriors was found. The warriors we see here have now been restored as they were found in pieces.
After spending the day with other foreigners I found out that I was not alone on the picture taking and staring thing.... and I thought I was special! Although I do keep getting told randomly by people that I have colorful eyes! Now we were 7 foreigners having people taking videos of us and pictures. I guess that the end of tourist season is when the Chinese tourists come in for tours and perhaps they do not see foreigners very often. Today at the Terra-Cotta Warriors there was a group of women who went up to a group of school children from Canada and just started touching them and their hair. I was in shock! The children too! The teacher stepped in and stopped it.
We made our way back to the city center and I spent some time in the Muslim Sector and went to the Great Mosque. I tried some pomegranate juice which was amazing. I found a highly rated dumpling restaurant that was close to my hotel and proceeded to have a dumpling feast! .... and because I loved the pomegranate juice I had to have some more!
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