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Chris...

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I was there at the Terra Cotta Warriors site in Xian, China in 2001.

There were signs on the walls saying no photos or videos but everyone - including me - did it and the many guards didn't care.

I had told my two-weeks-across-China guide, Zhou (pronounced "Joe"), that I had had pieces of the Parthenon, Great Pyramid of Kufu, Fortress of Masada, Wall of Troy, Wall of Jericho, Wall of King Agamemnon's bedroom at Mycenae, Palace of Crete, and many others where I had picked up pieces of rubble that couldn't be used in reconstruction that were lying at the base of the structures.

At one point when we were right next to the Terra Cotta Warriors, Zhou looked at me, smiled, and she reached down and picked up a broken piece of a terra cotta warrior's shoulder and handed it to me.  I was scared shitless.  I put it in my pocket and was too scared to take it out and put it back with all the guards around.  Zhou was almost surely related to Mao's right-hand man, Zhou En Lai (her father was major of a resort town near Beijing) and she did a lot of things on our tour where she ordered vendors, boats, etc. to do things and they did it, so I stuck close to her until we left that building (there are a couple buildings with those warriors) knowing I was safe with her in case some guard had seen the grab.  I still have the piece.

Inside the gift shop there, there are all kinds of small souvenirs of terra cotta warriors in jade, glass, and marble. I asked a worker if they had any in actual terra cotta.  She knelt down, reached under a counter, and pulled out a red box tied shut with a ribbon.  She opened it an there were five beautiful, about 5" tall terra cotta warriors standing, kneeling with a bow, and one on a horse - small versions of what we had seen.

I expected it was $100 and asked the price. In poor English, the woman said "Eighty Yuan."  I couldn't believe it!  I held my hand in the shape of a gun - thumb up, index finger straight out and other fingers closed like a fist. That's the bargaining symbol for "eight" in China.  Then I closed my hand into a fist, the sign for "zero."  She nodded yes - I had heard right, 80.  Eighty Yuan was $10 then!  I was so thrilled at such a great bargain!

As we left and headed back to our bus, a vendor in the parking lot held up the SAME box and warriors and called out, "Terra cotta warriors. One dollar!"

Zhou said they surely weren't the same good quality as what I had bought for $10 and the cheap ones would probably crumble into sawdust if you set them down hard. But I'm sure she was just being kind.

I didn't care - $10 was still a great price.  We Americans joked about it on the bus ride and I just laughed with no remorse.

 

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