Day 7 started just like every other day before it; I woke up, got a shower, and ate a huge breakfast. Today we were going to be seeing the Terracotta Warriors and biking on the Xi’an city walls. I was really excited for today because I’ve heard that the Terracotta Warriors were absolutely insane! We left around 8:00 and it took us about an hour to an hour and a half to get there. I took a little nap on the bus because you can never sleep too much. The first thing I remember seeing was a statue of the first emperor of China because the Terracotta Warriors were buried with him to protect him in the afterlife. There are supposed to be 80,000 warriors I believe, but only 20,000 have been excavated if I’m remembering correctly. We first walked through a little museum exhibit that showed some of the warriors they’ve found which was really cool, but what I was really waiting for would come up next. Then, we got to check out the pits. There were 3 pits, each filled with Terracotta Warriors. With each new pit we visited, the busier it got! By the time we got to the last pit, you could hardly move around. Jack almost got into a fight with some old Chinese lady which was pretty funny. The warriors were really breathtaking to look at. Many of them were broken in half and such, but it’s crazy to think that those things were made over 2000 years ago and buried in the ground.
As we all gathered outside the exit, we came across a group of Norwegian students, so we got to talk to them for a little. We went to lunch at a buffet after the Terracotta Warriors, which had really good ramen, but the rest of the food was average. We also saw the Norwegian students again.
After lunch, we drove to the Xi’an city walls, so that we could bike on them. Unfortunately for us, there was a bit of a dust storm today, so we had to wear masks. Luckily, I had my sunglasses too because even with sunglasses I was getting a lot of dust in my eyes. Biking on the wall was really cool because it wasn’t crowded at all so the boys and I got to go as fast as we wanted. We stopped in various spots to hang out and talk. It probably took us a little over an hour to bike all the way around the wall.
While we were waiting for everyone to finish up, we came across the group of Norwegian students again! Just think of the odds that this would happen. Some of the guys went over to shoot their shot and got shot down real hard, so that was funny to watch! We decided to eat dinner at the hotel because Dr. Li was doing that, and we didn’t feel like having to order something ourselves. After dinner, we went out to get some drinks and such and had a great time hanging out by the fountain in the front of the hotel. We would be leaving for Shanghai tomorrow and have to be ready by 7, so I went to bed around 12 or 12:30.