Xi'an - Terracotta warriors

The Terracotta Warriors is one of the major pulling cards for tourists to Xi'an. Jump in a car (or bus) and you'll be there in about an hour or so from Xi'an. Avoid tours - where possible, especially 'shopping tours'. They are overpriced and annoying. If anyone has ever been on a 'half day tour' of sites (particularly in South East Asia) you will find that the group will be ferried from warehouse to warehouse in an attempt to sell you mass produced 'souvenirs' AVOID IT!

We booked a guided bus tour for a half day - Normally I am against this and tend to make my own way to places (via public transport or a driver) but we were tired and over it. I think we paid way too much - at 300 RMB each (close to $50AUD). When this is translated into AUD - It's not that bad, we pay more for half-day tours in Sydney - but this is CHINA! This tour was the most expensive part of the whole trip and to be honest we were both a little underwhelmed. 

The tour guide tried her best to be engaging. For me this was hard, being partially deaf, I couldn't hear anything she was saying over the loud speaker and when she would fire questions at the group to ask about what she had just said - I would sit there frozen thinking, 'please don't pick me'.

The Terracotta Warriors were somewhat impressive. The tour guide made us look at the 3 pits in the order of what was more visually appealing rather than what came first historically - Which I understand, but it delivers a bit of a broken story.

I recommend that you take a guidebook with you (I had Rani :-) ), as the story of why and how they were made is very fascinating and worth researching. That being said, the best value I had from the tour was during our 'free time to roam' where my sister-in-law, Rani and I could wonder through the pits and take it all in.

I don't want to make out that they aren't worth seeing - THEY ARE. It’s just the circus act around them that dulls the performance (so to speak).

There is a 360 circle cinema at the end of the tour - after watching the first 2mins of a camera strapped to the front of a bike riding through a town - we both walked out (with motion sickness). Others in the group were somewhat confused as to what the 20min movie was meant to deliver.

OH - and we were able to see (and meet, if we wanted to pay) the farmer who found the warriors. I think he is there everyday, signing books and charging for photographs.

Part of the tour also included visiting a hill a tomb. The hill tomb contains Qin Shi Huang who had the Terracotta Warriors built during his ruling. Its a lovely hill The tomb which is inside a hill and can only be viewed from a distance as it contains a large amount of mercury which was purposely put here to protect the emperor. As a result, its impossible to go anywhere near it or excavate it for research. Again the history behind it is incredible - but I recommend taking a good guidebook (or a ‘Rani’:-) ) with you to research it, as the tour guide wasn't all that impressed with it either.