The Terra Cotta Warriors site is bombarded by throngs of tourists - up to 40,000 people a day visit this site. There are tour buses galore, people ramming you out of the way to get a little better photo, souvenir hawkers everywhere, and so many people at times that you feel claustrophobic. But, there is a reason for all of this. The Terra Cotta Warriors are without a doubt the greatest archaeological find of the 20th century. The intricate detail, individual features, and amazing preservation of this clay army is amazing, and they are still excavating more!

The movie they show you is really cool - 360 degrees, it's like you're standing in the middle of a battlefield. The sound is really bad, but if English is your first language, you should be able to understand it pretty well. For others, well, it's still cool to look at.

We hired a private guide to take us to the site, which we were glad we did. She filled us in on lots of things past what the signs would have told us, and really helped us feel the greatness of this site. Seeing the giant tour groups mauling themselves around really made us happy we didn't do a coach tour.

The museum is especially cool because you see the chariots, they are really spectacular. One was broken into over 1,500 pieces, and they put it back together. Took like 8 years. Wow.

There are tons of new storefronts and restaurant spaces under construction, so the facilities will be changing a lot. One word of warning - our guide took us to Flourishing International Hotel for lunch. Ask your tour guide where you will be going for lunch - if it is this place, book a different tour. When we arrived, there were about 30 full size tour buses there. You take an escalator upstairs walk through souvenir stands galore to the dining hall. There you are fed a grotesque faux-Chinese meal that is worse than the worst Chinese restaurant I've been to in the states. We couldn't even eat it. Hordes of people everywhere, terrible service, we had no idea what our lunch even was supposed to be or when it was over. For 2 people, we got 1 tiny plate of noodles, 1 small plate of rice, 1 chicken leg, 1 small plate of terrible pork & celery, and 1 plate of sticky potatoes that was so hard we couldn't even separate it to try to eat it. We left starving. If we weren't supposed to meet the tour guide back there soon, we would have walked out.

The Terra Cotta Warriors are not to be missed if you are in Xi'An.

We specifically visited Xi’an with the intention of seeing the Terracotta Warriors, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We arranged a day tour through the hotel. We drove for around 30 minutes from the hotel to the site of the Terracotta Warriors. Our guide lead us from the parking area, through the various entrances, to pit number 1 where we got to see what we had come to see. The warriors certainly are impressive, though I was surprised that there seemed to be fewer than I was expecting.

Pit 1 is certainly the most impressive of the three pits open to the public. Pit 1 is what you generally see in the photo's and videos on the Internet, i.e. various warriors and horses lined up in neat rows standing like they have done for centuries. Pits 2 and 3, while interesting, are not as impressive as the other pits, and can be avoided should time be short.

There is a photographer on site, at the entrance to Pit 1. There is a segregated area in which only he is allowed to take photo's of tourists. Being relatively accomplished photographers, we elected not to have our photo taken at his spot, but took our own photo's right next to his segregated area. We achieved pretty much what he would achieved had he taken the photo, and saved ourselves RMB 150 in the process. A photographic hint – make sure that your ‘back-flash’ is on when you take photo's of people in the foreground and the warriors in the background.

A visit to Xi’an is not complete without a visit to the Terracotta Warriors, and I would highly recommend it being part of anyone’s tour of Xi’an.

A word of caution in connection with the Terracotta Warrior site – do not buy teacups or kettles at the tourist gift shop (more specifically a tea shop) on the grounds – they are substantially more expensive than other places you will see in Xi’an and elsewhere. Also our tour guide took us to the so-called museum store where there is a man claiming to be the famer that found the Terracotta Warriors – he is the one in the photo with Bill Clinton. We got him to sign a Terracotta Warrior for us (that we have now had framed for the house). However, after investigating on the Internet I understand that he is not in fact the person that found the warriors – he uses the photo of him and Bill Clinton to lure tourists into thinking that he is the actual person that found the warriors – make up your own mind and decide whether you want to support the museum shop.

Visiting the army of terracota warriors was quite a surreal experience, after hearing/reading so much about them. It is definitley an awesome site when you walk into the first exhibition hall and are faced with thousands of lifeless statues. It was amazing walking around and seeing how each one is individual and the little details such as their hairstyles and clothing are so different.

They have quite an extensive gift shop at the site where you can also buy the book about the terracota warriors which I think is about 130Y(off the top of my head) and for that price you can get it signed by the farmer who found the warriors!! His job now is to sit in the museum and sign his name for the tourists (no photos though)

The only negative issue was there was a short film that you could watch about the history of the warriors and how they were found which is quite good becuase it is displayed on 360degree screens around you in a big room. However it was supposed to be in english but the sound was so muffled that you couldnt make out a word whether it was in engligh or chinese so you just have to interpet the video for yourself!

We just finished our one and a half day Xi'an tour and we enjoyed it immensely. The Terracotta Warriors were absolutely amazing - truly an eighth wonder of the world - and the reason for us taking this tour. We also visited the Big Goose Pagoda and the Grand Mosque and these were fascinating and added to the enjoyment of our visit.

Regarding comments on the tour (organised by TravelChinaGuide.com) I cannot state how highly we
thought of our guide, Ruth. She was entirely courteous, friendly, diligent, organised and efficient for the short time we were in Xi'an and helped make our visit a highly memorable one. Her English was excellent and she provided us with detailed explanations of the places we visited as well as the locations we drove through.

The driver was very efficient, courteous and punctual and we could not believe how he managed to get us from one place to the next so safely and quickly given the traffic conditions. The vehicle was very clean and comfortable and a supply of water was always on hand.

The meals provided were very good. The hotel breakfasts were more than adequate and the two lunches were excellent, notably the one on our first day. The dumpling banquet was amazing and we were unable to eat all of the superb food provided to us, although we had a good try!

Regarding the arrangements made for us, we were very impressed with the time and care taken by TCG to accommodate our specific needs and in answering my various emailed requests and queries in order to provide a tailored tour which exceeded our expectations.

In summary we cannot recommend the company TravelChinaGuide.com highly enough and will certainly use their services in future visits to China.