Amber's Journal: Day 6

Today's theme: In, Out, and Gone!  We flew into Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors.  I thought that since I'd seen them on TV and watched shows on the whole complex I had a handle on them...oh boy the real thing is so much BIGGER than you think!  The burial complex is huge, and so far they've got three pits open to the public--think football sized fields!  Debate still rages if the faces are all unique...but they're certainly not uniform. 

They're actively excavating this as you see it and conserving the statues--I'm praying they open the Emperor's mound during my lifetime--there's so much here it's not a guarantee, plus some people feel his burial mound should never be opened...both from respect and also because of mercury.  The first emperor's tomb was decorated with a model of China which had rivers of mercury--must have looked wonderful, but is now quite toxic!

Funniest part of the day...vendors abound here selling terracotta warrior souvenirs.  We were told to buy in the official shops--the quality is vastly better.  (Buyer beware when buying from freelancers!) These guys yell out "One dollah one dollah!" to entice you to buy--David pulled out an American dollar and handed it to one of them!  Naturally the price of the figurines went up at that point...but after some superior haggling, David got some statues for his office for about $5 American dollars! (I think the vendor was just so overwhelmed by how big David is that he gave in pretty easily!)