Man Impersonates Terra Cotta Soldier So Well Guards Can't Find Him!

This is odd. Very odd - A german student made a dusty brown suit of armor, a tunic and a helmet, and jumped into an open pit to join the famous terra cotta army in Xian, China:

The 26-year-old man _ identified only as "Pablo" or by his Chinese name "Ma Lin" _ made a dusty brown suit of armor, a tunic and a helmet, and attempted to blend in with the ancient warriors of the terra cotta army in the western city of Xi'an, the Hong Kong newspapers Ming Pao Daily News and Wen Wei Po reported on Monday.

The outfit matched the uniforms worn by the thousands of terra cotta soldiers buried in the tomb of the Emperor Qin Shihuangdi, who ruled between 221-210 B.C., the papers said. The soldiers _ one of China's greatest archaeological discoveries _ are displayed in a Xi'an museum.

Pablo entered the museum Saturday with his uniform packed in a suitcase, the papers said. Once inside, he quickly changed into the outfit, jumped over a barrier and joined the soldiers, who stand in hundreds of rows.

He blended in so well that security guards had difficulty finding him, Ming Pao said.

"I got to the area where he was supposed to be, looked around a bit and didn't see Ma Lin," the paper quoted a guard as saying. "He just looked too much like a terra cotta warrior."

When approached by a security staff, the man stayed "in character" and refused to utter a word! But finally, they dragged him out:

Wen Wei Po quoted Pablo as saying he has been obsessed with the soldiers since his childhood. He reportedly said that he only planned to have a photo of himself taken standing near the museum's excavation pit.

"But when I saw the soldiers, I got too excited and just couldn't stop myself from jumping into the pit," he was quoted as saying.

Since he didn't damage the soldiers, Pablo was released after getting a lecture from the security officials, the papers said.

Sina Link [in chinese] | English Story on Sina - via Spluch (great find, spluch!)