The World's Biggest and Most Frustrating Puzzle (Day 3578 - 9/11/19)

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Mallory and Rhonda are trying a century egg. They both said that the initial taste isn't bad, but it starts to taste like mushrooms towards the end. Back in their hotel room, Stephen says that they had breakfast and that he also tried the century egg. He says that it tastes like an egg until the end where it tastes different. Stephen talks about how they are going to get on a bus and go around Xi'an. They are going to see the Terracotta Army today. Then, they are flying to Beijing tomorrow. Afterwards, Stephen shows off the lobby of the Embassador International Hotel that they are staying at.

Later, they go to Xingqinggong Park where they join some locals for some tai chi and dancing with fans. After, they all took a group photo with the locals. Then, they watched a man playing the hulusi. Next, they played jianzi which is game where you pass a weighed shuttlecock without using your hands. They ended up getting the shuttlecock stuck in a tree, but a man in their tour group was able to get it down by throwing a water bottle into the tree. Then, they went to a workshop where they got to see people make small terracotta statues. There was also a section of the workshop dedicated to making furniture in the old Chinese-style. They had lunch at a university/hotel that up until recently had only been reserved for high ranking officials. They were given the choices of either having rice with chicken or spaghetti. Stephen comments on how weird it feels to be having spaghetti in China.

Next, they go to the 1st Terracotta Army pit. The tour guide told them that this was the original site where the terracotta warrior statues were first discovered by a farmer in 1974 while trying to dig a water well. They had stopped excavating all the statues because archaeologists realized that there is pigment on the statues. The pigment peels off once exposed to oxygen, so they stopped excavating until they could find a way to preserve the color. But, they have figured out a method to preserve the color which can be seen on the statues further in the back. There is also a separate building where all the restoration work is done.

Stephen mentions that the farmer who discovered the terracotta army became a huge celebrity. The government made him a lifetime curator and people would come ask him for autographs. He did it for 20 years and only stopped doing it in the last few years since he's 87 years old now. The farmer was from a a small poor village and was illiterate. He first found a head of a terracotta statue since the head part is removable. He thought it was an evil spirit and thought he had cursed his village. Then, they go to the 2nd pit of terracotta statues. Stephen mentions that most of the statues in the 1st pit were found in pieces and barely any of them were found in one piece. Therefore, this has become the world's biggest and most frustrating puzzle to reassemble all those terracotta warriors. They had found 1 intact terracotta statue which was a kneeling archer.

Back at the hotel, Stephen talks about how the terracotta army was gigantic and amazing. Mal continued looking up information about the terracotta army after getting back to the hotel. She found out that they used some underground radar technology to figure out how much is still buried. There are still things other than the statues that haven't been excavated like emperor tombs and a lot of bronze items. Stephen talks about how the terracotta army is one of the biggest archaeological finds in history. But, no one gets excited about any discoveries there anymore since new things are being discovered once a week.

Then, he and Mal talked about how there is a contrast between the discovery of the terracotta army and Egyptian pyramids. This is because it is already known that things are contained within the pyramids, but the terracotta statues before discovered by chance. They both agree that it would be interesting to return and see the terracotta statues in 50 years since it will have changed a lot. Mal says that the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor has never been opened up to the public. Archaeologists were worried about opening it up because of the pigments of the terracotta statues. The pigment on the statues flaked off in 15 seconds after being exposed to oxygen.

For dinner, they wanted to go out and eat baozi with Mark and Rhonda. They asked the hotel concierge about a restaurant where they would be able to eat baozi. The directions the concierge gave them led them to an alleyway with all sorts of shops. They didn't find a restaurant that served baozi, but they found a lady that looked like she was selling them. Mal handed her 4 yuan and the lady handed them a bag of "baozi". They only wanted 2 of them, but once Mal handed her the money she just stuffed the bag with them. So, they ended up getting 8 of them. Mal bit into one of them and realized it wasn't a baozi because it had no filling. So, they were basically just dinner rolls. They gave up and just ended up eating dinner at their hotel. After, they returned to their room. Stephen says that they have to put their luggage outside their room by 10:00 PM, so it can be taken to the airport since they have an early flight to Beijing tomorrow. Mal is for some reason hiding behind a curtain.