Woke up at 6:30. Got dressed, packed, and waited outside the rooms until 7 for our morning gathering. We went north a block into the muslim district again for breakfast, this time I pointed to a paomo place and asked if I could eat there. About half the group ended up eating there. This is one of the famous specialty foods of the city, and I quite enjoyed it. They give you an empty bowl and two fairly hard bread rolls. you tear the rolls up into small pieces (shred them), and give it back to them. They fill it up with broth (with lamb meat and some noodles) and give it back. the broth soaks into the bread, and tastes really good.
Next we got onto the bus, as a new tour guide materialized (so we once again seemed to be creating an entourage with 2 tour guides and a bus driver). We were going first to the terra cotta warriors, but instead detoured to a factory where they make the imitation ones today. Not everyone realized that it was pointless being there, and so it took 30 minutes to get everyone rounded back into the bus, with plenty of dirty looks at the tour guides on my part.
Went to the actual warriors next. It’s been turned entirely into a tourist trap by this point. Not entirely surprising, i suppose, but still a disappointment. They took us first into a cinema, passing an old guy behind a big fan who was apparently the farmer that discovered the ruins. He now charges for signatures. You’re not allowed to take his photo.
The movie was some weird reenactment of soldiers doing things, it didn’t seem related to the ruins at all, so I slipped out the back and decided that I was frustrated enough to go off and see the sights on my own.
I walked through the three pits. there are railings around them, at least on the weekends they are fully crowded by tourists. Quite a spectacle, but so built up as to not be really that exciting. Took some pictures. You need a better zoom lens to really capture individual sculptures though, since you can get close to any of them.
There was a poor quality museum on the premises too, walked through it, and then sat and waited for about 15 minutes while the rest of the group finished their tour.
had dinner at a ‘village restaurant’ which had tourist prices, but decent food. Hi-lights were probably the pomegranate chicken and the tofu dish.
Drove next to a provincial history museum. It was two stories, I got through it in about 50 minutes, and then waited another half hour for others to finish. On the way back to the hotel, the bus passed by the market I’ve been wanting to go to, and the let me and others interested off there.
The market was cool, lots of small stalls, but decent looking / quality clothing. lots of flocks of college students. I got a jacket and a belt for 150 rmb.
Walked back towards campus, though we were still outside of the wall. Found a dumpling place, and had egg/chive, radish/chicken, and pork dumplings which were cheap and good. Took a bus the rest of the way back to the hotel.
Our room wasn’t open, (that is, sergio who had the key to the room with everyone in our group (me, max, joe, steven, jeremy) wasn’t around) so we hung out in joes room until he got back. I took a shower and used the internet at the hostel lounge. Then walked around the Muslim district one last evening. Got some preserved kiwi slices and a pomegranate.
Came back, started watching ‘painted skin’, but decided it wasn’t that interesting, so I came back to the room for bed. got myself in order for tomorrow, and heading to bed soon. I need to finish coming up with a plan, so I don’t waste my free time tomorrow morning.