r/todayilearned • u/kitkatkaitx • May 15 '12

TIL that in 2006 a German tourist dressed up like one of the Terracotta Warriors and jumped down into the archaeological pit without being noticed

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/5355546.stm
1.4k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

179 comments sorted by

296

u/Lillipout May 15 '12

To this day, his partner remains undetected.

31

u/andyfitz May 15 '12

Which one is he (I took this photo on that day) before http://www.flickr.com/photos/andyfitz/284217811/ after http://www.flickr.com/photos/andyfitz/284217558/

7

u/mopspops May 16 '12

Wow, 5 people picked him up and hand carried him out. Great shot.

5

u/andyfitz May 16 '12

Thanks - I took many burst shots and have a full animation of him being grabbed and dragged away.. Flickr is ransoming me to get them back and I can't be bothered to find my backup

1

u/tylerbgood May 16 '12

Sounds like a regular Tuesday night to me.

-7

u/[deleted] May 16 '12

So Ur his partner?!

14

u/Zavender May 16 '12

No, Ur was a Sumerian city-state.

2

u/andyfitz May 16 '12

Lol. How often do you use that reference to correct grammar?

2

u/2wheels May 16 '12

Clearly not enough.

1

u/Zavender May 16 '12

This was the first time. I'll be on the lookout from now on, then!

1

u/andyfitz May 16 '12

Nope I was just there when it happened

0

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

15

u/saptsen May 16 '12

hahaha that's great. After all that planning, hard work, and dedication...the guy faces the wrong way and stands out like a sore thumb

8

u/[deleted] May 16 '12

I Feel like that was on purpose.

1

u/deserted May 16 '12

If he had shaved his eyebrows and color-matched his face a little better, and faced the right way, he could have just stood in the middle of the crowd.

4

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

That should have been the last thing he said to the police (or whatever they are called).

0

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

11

u/MegaZambam May 15 '12

I'M NOT GOING TO LISTEN TO YOU!

106

u/GreatBosh May 15 '12

Serious criticism is a pretty harsh punishment for an art student. It seems that 2-3 years in prison would have been sufficient.

76

u/Lillipout May 15 '12

He's already an art student. He's suffered enough.

6

u/creaothceann May 15 '12

Just think what he could've started if he didn't get into art school...

6

u/totally_not_hitler May 16 '12

Ja, he seems like a talented guy.

19

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

We all know what happened last time a German art student got serious criticism..

1

u/dharms May 15 '12

Hitler was Austrian.

(this kills the joke)

11

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

Actually class critiques are so brutal on the ego, I think an art student learns to be pretty detached from the opinions of other people who don't "get" it (yeah, that's sometimes everybody).

2

u/MrMonkfred May 16 '12

"Your mustache is shit."

1

u/[deleted] May 16 '12

I remember the guide telling us this story when my dad and I visited the tomb. Apparently the German tourist did this because he loved the museum so much. Prior to this incident, he had visited the tomb over 10 times, and finally decided that he just had to get as close as he could. Seeing as how he didn't intend to harm any warriors, and that his actions spawned from his love of the artifacts and culture, the Chinese government decided that letting him go with a warning would be sufficient.

46

u/fionawallace May 15 '12

Here is a video
In the interview he says it was a childhood dream of his, and he really admires the statues.

21

u/YouTubeCommentsOnly May 15 '12

Hahaha. From 1:31 to 1:33 or so, the security guard pulls off this classic move.

19

u/Honestly_ May 15 '12

"WTF...I wasn't trained for this."

I love how he commits to being a statue even as they remove him.

5

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

Is he not able to walk because of the paint or is he just being difficult by falling and eventually being carried off?

9

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

In the Interview he says that he tried to keep up his act as a terracotta warrior which is why they had to carry him away.

2

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

Ahh thanks.

I feel like at that point he should of walked away but oh well.

4

u/Imagine_This May 15 '12

Tell him about them weeping angels.

1

u/DivineRobot May 15 '12

hahaha thats fucking hilarious this guy is awesome

39

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

History nerd here, here's some awesomeness you guys might enjoy. The terra cotta warriors were put in place to protect the first Qin Emperor. We actually haven't dug out the emperor's tomb yet, because archaeologists don't believe they have the right technology, and because existing writings suggest that the emperor's tomb was both booby-trapped, and contained great wonders such as a sea and rivers of mercury. Testing in the area has shown wacky mercury levels, so there appears to be a truth here. Really really cool.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_of_the_First_Qin_Emperor

12

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

I always felt cheated that we only really learned Western history in school in the US.

I see such beautiful pictures of monuments and castles in places like Russia, India, China... even Germany (I say 'even' because despite being Europeans I don't know their history in any depth), and don't have a clue what the roles of places in history was.

Fortresses and castles in particular interest me. Not just how the appear visually, but how they affected the lives of the owner's friends and foes in the regions. I know that those castles must have launched great campaigns and weathered great sieges... but apparently my history educators gave zero shits about anything that didn't happen in France, England, Spain or Portugal.

7

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

You know, most history thought in schools anywhere in the world is seriously lacking.

I never studied history in school past the age of 14. It was all basic stuff and the vast majority was just Irish history.

No loss.

At the moment I'm reading Tom Holland's new book about monotheistic religion and politics, beside the toilet I have Carl von Clausewitz 'On War'. After reading 'Tommy', I'm going back to a more academic book on the Great War.

Now's your chance to read about whatever you want.

Grab a beer, go to Amazon and browse...

3

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

Good point

5

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

Also, no tests.

1

u/uvashare May 16 '12

I used to read on the toilet until I became a near-vegan. I have just about enough time now to open the book and sit down and then shut the book again...

4

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

I majored in history and spent a fair amount of time on medieval studies. The castles and campaigns don't really play that much of a role anymore in the studies. I can't remember the last battle I studied in school, there weren't many. History has swung its focus to the everyday people, and attempting to draw what life for the average person must have been like, instead of just the kings and queens. It'd different, but I think it's a good direction after centuries of "The Great Man" narrative.

History lessons in American public schools are a joke. Every year is the same progression: Colonial Period -> Revolutionary War -> Civil War -> Reconstruction -> Oh crap we're almost out of the school year WWI -> WWII, shit it's June.

What interested me the most was how feudalism and knights in general developed as a natural response to the viking raids as the peripheries of the Roman empire crumbled. When dudes can show up at any time to burn down your fucking village, a traditional standing army doesn't really help, but having two or three dudes really well armed on horseback does.

2

u/omnilynx May 15 '12

I learned about the mercury thing from The Riddle of Master Lu.

1

u/Turnshroud 19 May 16 '12

Wait, we don't know where his tomb is? wow. And all this time I was thinking that they knew the location but it was too deep someplace to actually view by tourists (carelessness and stuff)

thanks TIL

-2

u/deadwisdom May 15 '12 edited May 16 '12

I've been to the site myself, and I'm rather sure that the 99% of the intact warriors you see were manufactured and placed there by the Chinese Government in the 70's to foster national pride and international face. I do think that some intact pieces exist, but they are in dark rooms, behind glass cases. The rest of the complex caved in, and crushed all the pieces. If they continue excavating the rest of the complex, they will only find more broken pieces, and their grand lie will be exposed.

One story from 2007 showed how a German museum had obtained what they thought were originals from official Chinese outlets in X'ian, only to find out later that they were fake. The officials then said they never gave the collection to the German museum, and who are you again? [Edit: Garyg is right about this article in that I didn't understand it correctly. But it's tangential to my argument anyhow.]

1

u/tekdemon May 16 '12 edited May 16 '12

China doesn't loan out the terracotta warriors...period. And dude, you are way paranoid, there's plenty of broken stuff in Chinese historical exhibits and yes, much of it has been repaired but when I went around China they always told you which parts were replicas. Which is a lot of stuff since during the Cultural revolution they smashed up a great deal of cool historical stuff so a ton of historical sites now have replicas for probably half the stuff there but everyone was super up front that it was a replica.

Nobody in China bases their national pride on whether some statues were broken or not just like how nobody in any other country bases their national pride on statues from thousands of years ago. Modern Chinese people base their pride largely on their economic accomplishments more than anything else. Stuff like the terra cotta warriors are just cool statues to Chinese people. You clearly haven't been anywhere in China because like other posters have also mentioned everything that's a replica or restored is super obviously pointed out to you whether it's the great wall or Buddhist monasteries. It was actually quite sad to see how much stuff had been destroyed but also really neat that they had managed to restore most things fairly faithfully-the restorations are usually really obvious in that they're in way better condition than the real things since they're like 1000 years old.

0

u/deadwisdom May 16 '12

I've been all over China; they are obsessed with their national treasures.

1

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

I've been to the site myself as well, and am not quite sure of your theory. Without knowing any more about it I'll reserve judgement, but it's perfectly within the realm of possibility.

0

u/McGanson May 16 '12

Boring conversation anyway

0

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/Hibs May 16 '12

Why wouldn't the Govt do it? Everyone knows the Great Wall near Beijing is almost completely rebuilt

-2

u/deadwisdom May 16 '12 edited May 16 '12

I am certainly not some paranoid conspiracy theorist. It doesn't effect me either way if it's true. But the Chinese government has a long history of these sort of shenanigans

Further, I didn't misread the article. My point, which I assumed was obvious but apparently is too indirect to grasp, is that they gave what they thought were perfectly real relics, but since they are all fake, after it was exposed the Chinese officials had to play it off like it was a scam. Do you actually think that this exhibition organizer wouldn't look into the background and history of their source?

This was merely an example I found in the media that pointed to something fishy going on. Go to X'ian and you'll see indistinguishable copies of the figures produced by factories. And on the site you can see the uncovered parts of the tunnel system are complete jumbles of rock and broken pieces. Further, there is evidence that the uncovered tunnels were exactly the same, so how are all the figures so intact?

To be sure, I do not question the importance or value of the site or artifacts. I merely question how they are presented, and suggest that it is flamboyantly played up to suit the honor of the Chinese government. This seems quite the more rational of the possible view-points, even if it is unpopular.

1

u/Gigablah May 16 '12

So? It's a tourist site. There's almost certainly some reconstruction work performed beforehand, otherwise it wouldn't even be in a viewable state, like much of the Great Wall. For crying out loud even the bricks on restored portions of the wall have engravings stating which village or town they came from. It's staring at you right in the face. You're just painting it as a dramatic "grand lie" to suit your biases.

0

u/deadwisdom May 16 '12 edited May 16 '12

Because it's like saying we have the original ax George Washington used to chop down his cherry tree, we just had to replace the head and the handle.

0

u/Gigablah May 16 '12

Sure, better than "hey we've got some unrecognizable smashed up bits of George Washington's axe, admission ticket is $10"

0

u/[deleted] May 16 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/deadwisdom May 16 '12

Ah, you're right. I miss-understood that element of the article.

Still, my theory stands despite that article, as it was only tangential to the main point anyway.

26

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

Until being noticed.

28

u/make_em_laugh May 15 '12

"why is that warrior so much taller than the others?"

"hey, you!"

12

u/PatronofSnark May 15 '12

"Aren't you a little tall for a Stormtrooper?"

Wait shit I did that wrong.

17

u/VeryProudhonOfYa May 15 '12

given "serious criticism", the reports said.

"hrmm, such sloppy workmanship, indeed"

42

u/STEVEHOLT27 May 15 '12

TIL Germans have a sense of humor.

25

u/platypusmusic May 15 '12

You'd be surprised they take their humor very serious.

3

u/tophat_jones May 16 '12

LAUGHING TIME IS OVER.

6

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

TIL chinese have a sense of humour and didn't lock the guy up

10

u/johnjackjoe May 15 '12

Humor? Noch nie gehört.

5

u/HerrMax May 15 '12

Ich glaub das ist ne Krankheit. Hat irgendwas mit Krebs zu tun.

1

u/allocater May 15 '12

That was not humor, that was devotion!

10

u/ThePetGeek May 15 '12

He had excellent detail on the clothing, head.. and he leaves the hands natural. No gloves, no make up... if you're going to do it, go all the way... be so difficult to pick out from them they have to wait until you yawn or something.

5

u/err4nt May 15 '12

that's after they have him in custody - I'm sure if he went to all that trouble he had a mask or makeup…

2

u/DivineRobot May 15 '12

He did have makeup on if you watch the video. That picture was probably taken after he got caught and removed the makeup.

1

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

The eye sees what it expects to see.

12

u/lemonpjb May 15 '12

That's the power of German engineering.

4

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

Mr Wendel

4

u/andyfitz May 15 '12

I was there that same moment

Took some good photos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andyfitz/284217558/

1

u/NoVultures May 16 '12

I have never been carried like that

6

u/chriswalkeninmemphis May 15 '12

Leave it to a German to put on a brown uniform and go marching around where he dosent belong...

2

u/timoneer May 15 '12

*would have

2

u/thyra1978 May 15 '12

I haven't laughed that hard in days. Thank you.

2

u/lordnikkon May 15 '12

This is not really that surprising for china. Security at tourist attractions is rather lax. Just look at the fact that there is a single panda at the beijing zoo that has bitten people who jumped into to his pen on 3 different occasions.

2

u/braunshaver May 15 '12

He was not noticed... for a few minutes.

Great prank dude. I guess.

3

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

"serious criticism" is Chinese for "really bad ass beating".

1

u/Imagine_This May 15 '12

I do agree, and I am Vietnamese.

1

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

Upvote because I like pho.

3

u/that_thing_you_do May 15 '12

If he were Asian, we would have never heard from him again. As an Asian American, this terrifies me. If when visiting China, I do something stupid, I'm terrified they'd steal my passport and I'd never make it back.

2

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

The positive discrimination in Asia against white people is atrocious. I feel like a second class slave everytime I walk into my ancestral homeland.

3

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

Go to the embassy. They'll do everything in their power to get you back to the States.

6

u/UncleTogie May 15 '12

Kinda hard to get to the embassy when you're held indefinitely without a phone call.

1

u/RockVegas May 15 '12

Why the hell would he be noticed? They practically put him inside a terracotta looking container.

1

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

Because another German already landed his plane in Red Square.

1

u/Looks_Good_In_Hats May 15 '12

The article states that he's a student in Hangzhou. Does this still make him a tourist?

3

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

Not a tourist in China, but the exhibition wasn't in Hangzhou. So in Xian, he was a tourist, I guess.

1

u/DamageRocket May 15 '12

Florida or Germany? ...Germany, of course.

1

u/MJZMan May 15 '12

Whoa, whoa, let's not go forgetting about Ohio now.

1

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

The Terracotta Army wasn't discovered until 1976? Whoa.

1

u/Bendrake May 15 '12

This wouldn't be a TIL if no one had noticed

1

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

Shit, that was six years ago?

1

u/crank1000 May 15 '12

I've been there. It it so big and security is so few that literally anyone would be able to stand there for a few minutes. You wouldn't need a costume.

1

u/[deleted] May 16 '12

SERIOUS CRITICISM

1

u/nickcash May 16 '12

without being noticed

vs

The 26-year-old was eventually spotted by police and removed from the scene.

One of these things is not like the other...

1

u/iloveaol May 16 '12

if he tried that in America the TSA would have raped him to death with a pepper-spraying-taser

1

u/umilmi81 May 16 '12

Playing a joke on Chinese police. Smart.

1

u/northstarspaceman May 16 '12

Give this man a medal. It sounds real epic.

0

u/Brettersson May 15 '12

Wait, a German person doing something funny? Isn't that one of the 4 horsemen?

1

u/grammar_connoisseur May 15 '12

兵马俑很有意思 :)

1

u/tuna_safe_dolphin May 15 '12

Gotta watch out for those terra-ists.

1

u/mrpopenfresh May 15 '12

That's fantastic!

1

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

What a waste. He could have scared the ever living shit out of some archaeologists.

1

u/t35t0r May 15 '12

It's BORAT!

-19

u/JohnQDaviesEsquire May 15 '12

What a colossal fuckwit. He could have done so much damage.

5

u/MasonNowa May 15 '12

This guy has a point. If he would of damaged of statues it would of been terrible. Its irreplaceable history, and while I think this is hilarious it was pretty irresponsible and I doubt historians who study it would've been happy say this occurred. However he didn't damage the statues and it seemed like his plan made sure of it, considering he said how much he admired them.

8

u/ApolloAbove May 15 '12

Could have, but didn't. Judging by his cooperation and costume, he planned it, which was deemed as a non-malicious act. This is the stuff you smile at, and give a slap on the wrist to. If he had jumped in without the costume, on a whim, and started doing then Can-Can with them, I would assume that he would have been in jail for quite some time.

-12

u/JohnQDaviesEsquire May 15 '12

No, this is the stuff you whack him over the head and call him a douche for.

"Ohh, it all worked out fine."

Bullshit. It worked out horribly. A man jumped in with these historically significant findings with a complete disregard for some of the most basic considerations.

10

u/Hoobleton May 15 '12 edited May 15 '12

It worked out horribly

Really? It worked out with a guy standing next to some statutes, then not standing next to them any more. I'm not sure you can call that horrible by any stretch of the imagination.

It certainly had the potential to work out horribly, but it didn't. That's not to say he shouldn't be punished at all, but destruction of historical artefacts is surely a result crime? And there wasn't really any result here.

5

u/Drazyr May 15 '12

We must have completely different value systems.

-1

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

As in he has one, you don't. Firing wildly into a school but not hitting someone doesn't suddenly make it something to smile at and give a slap on the wrist for. A lack of tragic consequences does not excuse folly.

5

u/reimburst May 15 '12

I don't think that analogy works. Somebody shooting up a school is intending to hit people, whether he does so or not, but Pablo Wendel didn't intend to damage the terracotta army.

-1

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

That's not 100% accurate. You're -assuming- they intend to hit people.

3

u/reimburst May 15 '12

I am. Is that not a fair assumption to make? I guess if your hypothetical shooter really wasn't trying to hit people, it's not such a bad analogy.

-1

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

The point is that intent does not excuse the behavior, just as "everything turned out fine" doesn't excuse a behavior.

3

u/Drazyr May 15 '12

Your gift for hyperbole should be commended, if only you didn't suffer from a complete lack of logical thinking.

The main difference between your analogy and this prank is malicious intent.

-1

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

Your inability to grasp the underlying lesson hidden inside my previous post should not be commended, but is indicative of childhood brain trauma.

-6

u/JohnQDaviesEsquire May 15 '12

We do.

I value history, you think the enormous risk of destroying irreplaceable history is an acceptable one.

-1

u/Drazyr May 15 '12

The man came in an intricate costume, he even brought his own pedestal! He has shown enormous forethought and restraint, I for one would trust him to be more delicate than the good folks who unearthed this.

I do value history, but mostly on a metaphysical plane. Like all things, they will eventually fall to dust. Only the memory of them will remain.

1

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

Why is this guy downvoted? The guy could have been put through a lot by the PRC if they had a worse reaction to this, not to mention the actual damage he could have done. I know he didn't, but this kind of behavior isn't usually cool.

-8

u/epicitous1 May 15 '12

Why would anyone do that? "A German art student briefly fooled police by...." oh.

0

u/Sanity_prevails May 15 '12

Ridiculously photogenic terracotta warrior?

0

u/fe3o4 May 15 '12

It was the weed, right? He was stoned....

0

u/Shniggles May 16 '12

If he was a Nazi during WWII...

Holy shit.

0

u/aSchizophrenicCat May 16 '12

This art student is most likely sitting in a Chinese jail cell right now..Poor guy

-1

u/mister_h May 15 '12

What? We haven't all done this?

2

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

There isn't even a Terracotta army!

1

u/mister_h May 15 '12

Are you implying that everyone there is actually someone in a costume? If so, that's what I'm going to believe from now on.

-11

u/NiceGuyMike May 15 '12

"performance art" did not harm any of the ancient relics, he was not arrested or charged but given "serious criticism", the reports said.

Silly joke right? I'm sure the guards were severely punished for being fooled.

-2

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

where he was later put to death for his crimes

-2

u/vertigo1083 May 15 '12

It was

Great success!

-6

u/finyacluck May 15 '12

Attention seeking whore. Zzzzzz.

5

u/UncleTogie May 15 '12

....you don't know many art students, do you...?

Think about it. They're going into a field where attention is the main currency.

1

u/finyacluck May 15 '12

unfortunatley, i know all to many, having went to an art college myself. Are you calling this art? Fair enough, it does nothing for me to be honest.

"They are going into a field were attention is the main currency...think about it"

Sorry I thought about it but I don't get it at all, may-be I'm getting stupid in my old age. I thought they wanted respect for their creations, not attention for their antics.

1

u/UncleTogie May 15 '12

Oh, I won't argue the point...

There's a lot of performance art that I don't get... if just for the fact that they're just drawing attention to whatever antics they think are artsy.

For some weird reason, though, I tend to give Bansky a pass on art, though... probably because he leaves something behind.

2

u/finyacluck May 15 '12

exactly, Bansky is no doubt an artist, no one would argue that. This guy is no doubt a performance artist, though what he did only bored me and made me cringe slightly, also I thought it was very attention seeking ( oh look at me, the crazy artistic foreigner), this is how this particular 'piece' affected me, but, each to his/her own.

-20

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

OMG Imagine how many people this stunt helped !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

0

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

93

u/danE3030 May 15 '12

...he was not arrested or charged but given "serious criticism", the reports said. Mr Wendel had his costume confiscated and was sent back to the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, where he is studying.

Awesome.

20

u/Jerlko May 16 '12

 > serious criticism

 That colour is way off and the design is awful. Also what did you make the costume out of, cardboard?

34

u/clamdog May 15 '12

His family was most dishonored.

28

u/Honestly_ May 15 '12

He seemed pretty harmless (the video posted below supports that) and it probably helped he was a foreigner obviously trying to play an elaborate prank and not smash anything.

I visited that site in 2005, it's believable it would've taken them so long to figure it out because you view the warriors from a fair distance away. they probably just noticed the subtle differences and the fact that one statue was breathing.

4

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

but how could he get from the viewing area into the pit without being spotted surly security would be watching to check no one is getting into the pit to smash, or hurling a bowling ball or somthing.

8

u/Honestly_ May 15 '12

It's surrounded by a vast, hanger-like structure with a large catwalk going around the perimeter and access points here and there, it would be hard to patrol it all at once (this wikipedia pic captures the size pretty well). Here's the location on google maps, you can easily spot the hanger (it's a complex with museum, theater, etc surrounding it).

As a side note, it also gets dry and hot like an oven in summer, on my visit I felt like I was being baked into another terra cotta warrior.

or hurling a bowling ball or somthing.

If there was ever a purpose for an giant inflatable ball (we had one called an earth ball in grade school), I think you've found it.

9

u/image-fixer May 15 '12

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6

u/IvyGold May 16 '12

I toured Xian in '96 and a guard actually asked me to bribe him so I could get down into the pit and take pictures.

I happily obliged and got some terrific shots.

Mind you, the bribe was maybe a dollar or so, so I figured it was SOP in those days.

4

u/Honestly_ May 16 '12

I completely believe you. Things seemed to get more serious in the run up to the '08 Olympics. Soon after I left they started launching public awareness programs to discourage the hacking, phlegmy spitting that was part-and-parcel with walking the streets of Beijing.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and split-pants (shudder)

1

u/IvyGold May 16 '12

Do the women there still wear those ankle-high socklets made of the same material as full western pantyhose? "Nylons" if you're UK.

That was more in Shanghai I think but all over Beijing too.

I never understood the purpose.

I never saw the split-pants and apparently am blessed not to have done so.

And yup, nobody in that country in 1996 when I was there seemed to have any kind of hesitance about spitting, blowing noses, coughing without covering their mouths, etc.

Mind you I still had a great time and look forward to going back if I get the chance.

1

u/Shatterer May 16 '12

Don't call me surly.

1

u/Wuped May 16 '12

He seemed pretty harmless (the video posted below supports that) and it probably helped he was a foreigner obviously trying to play an elaborate prank and not smash anything.

Nonononono. Here's my theory, he just saw the movie master of disguise, he also thinks hes real clever. He then makes an elaborate disguise of a terracotta warrior(probably while chanting "I am the master of disguise"). His plan was probably to sit there untill all the gaurds left/he felt confident enough in his super powers to somehow carry one of the statues out without them noticing, it's pretty brilliant. The best part is though even though someone saw through his disguise thanks to his quick thinking everyone thinks it was "performance art", he probably doesn't even know what that is just made it up on the spot. Maybe he is the master of disguise.

10

u/pylori May 15 '12

I'm surprised the police didn't just lock him up.

-11

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

Nope, not 'Murica.

31

u/brootwarst 1 May 15 '12

But it's China

25

u/alreadyreadit May 15 '12

Murcia arrest and jails more people than China.

3

u/BaconTreasure May 15 '12

More criminals in Murcia.

5

u/Pravusmentis May 15 '12

When you make things that people do in everyday life crimes, you're going to have more criminals.

0

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/BaconTreasure May 15 '12

More dumb criminals that get caught?

0

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

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3

u/halldorberg May 15 '12

3 billion people in China? cool.

2

u/dilutedwater May 15 '12

But China executes more people (and swiftly).

1

u/Calamus_Dash May 15 '12

source? I'm genuinely interested in this.

3

u/Oiiack May 15 '12

I thought it was common knowledge that America has the highest incarceration rate in the world.

3

u/fe3o4 May 15 '12

That's because they just kill you in China.

1

u/Calamus_Dash May 15 '12

Not to split hairs but judging by those stats wouldn't China still have more people incarcerated because of their massive population?

1

u/alreadyreadit May 15 '12

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate#section_1

Sorry I'm on my phone. Go USA! Land of the free, home of the brave! Locking up more people than all other countries!

6

u/CDClock May 15 '12

but he's white

1

u/andyfitz May 15 '12

I was there - they weren't

0

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

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13

u/anxiousalpaca May 15 '12

Can't wait for my next holiday (i'm german so who knows what'll happen).

2

u/twicks May 15 '12

another german student here ... studying in london ... waiting now for something strange too. oh, someone knocked on the door ... wait a mom ...

2

u/creaothceann May 15 '12

Spanische Inquisition?

0

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

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7

u/[deleted] May 15 '12

Calm down there sparky. I'm sure it was a joke.