The Terracotta Warriors are one of China's top attractions and were absolutely magnificent. It's pretty much a 'must-see' in this part of China, and rightfully so. I was dead excited to go and see them but at more than one point really didn't think I was going to make it. Outside the train station there are regular buses to the site. We spotted a sign and went to stand underneath it. We'd been warned about touts trying to get you to board private taxi-buses to the site and charge you extra for the pleasure so when all the old men hanging round us pointed us across to another side of the car park we didn't take any notice, continuing to wait, and wait, and wait...It was only when a friendly Chinese couple asked a policeman for us in return for taking their photo that we found out they had been pointing in the right direction after all. This is the crap thing about all the cheats and touts that try to rip tourists off - you lose your trust and faith in everyone, and I really don't like that.
Once we finally arrived we had to negotiate our way through a massive shopping complex, bigger than any in my home town, only to find ourselves at the exit! The entrance was back the other way and we could see it down a small service road but were made to run the gauntlet of hecklers back through the shopping centre instead of following the direct route, leaving me in a really irritated mood by the time (three quarters of an hour later) that we finally reached the ticket desk. But all that was relieved by the prospect of what I was about to see.
There are three pits which have been (partly) excavated. Not all of the warriors are intact, in fact most of them aren't, and we were able to see a good cross-section of chambers within each pit that had been excavated or restored to differing extents. That was cool, as it gave you an idea of how these amazing sculptures were found. 
There's a whole variety of troop types represented and the statues really do have obviously different and unique facial features. I'd heard all the blurb, but it's much more startling in reality. The whole complex was actually. The number 1 pit is huge and protected by an enormous aircraft hangar.
The number two pit was only slightly smaller, but less completely excavated, which was really interesting to me as you could see more clearly how the underground chambers were originally constructed - huge excavated pits lined with mud-brick walls and roofed with wooden logs. You could see how the roofs had sunk over time in some cases, clearly the cause of damage to the sculptures underneath. It was all extremely interesting and worth the initial shopping centre stress.
That day was also Russell's birthday and with Anthony in town with his family too, we went to celebrate. It was an unusual night. First bar we went into was nice enough, but marred by the badly out of tune piano. Second bar we came across was called 'Touch Bar' so we had to have a look. It was empty, apart from us, with bead curtains dividing up the space into booths, bizarrely enough with lace doilies on the backs of the chairs. Third bar had a decent enough covers band playing. Fourth was similar, except it was filled with well-soused middle-aged Chinese men, one of whom came over and was drunk at us before commandeering the mike to begin singing karaoke, at which point we left. Fifth had tall tables with stools that didn't always match, leaving Anthony sat almost chin-high to the table, which he really wasn't impressed by. It also had the most horrendous toilets of all. They'd been well used... The final bar we passed by was lit up in pink and playing Cher. Not enticing, but we were really running out of options by this point though so had a look. Turned out alright in the end. Again it was full of bead curtained booths, but had comfy sofas so we lingered for a while. Two other westerners were in there, a couple of Greeks. They were a bit random. One had strange 'I'm a music teacher' hair - long, dank, grey and straggly, yet arty at the same time. We invited them to join us after a while. It was cool. The barman was an excellent chap. We had a bit of banter going and after haggling the price down anyway managed to persuade him that he was making the drinks all wrong and proceeded to instruct him on how to pour a proper whisky and coke. It left us with about a triple of Jack Daniels each and one can of coke between the three of us. He was so pleased that he gave us all a free top up! It was horrible! Anthony and I kept topping up Russell's glass with our drinks when he wasn't looking. He didn't seem to mind. For some strange reason we also decided to have some Baileys, which the barman had never served before, so of course we told him how. It looked like we were drinking milkshakes. We drained the bottle! It was a good night...
There are three pits which have been (partly) excavated. Not all of the warriors are intact, in fact most of them aren't, and we were able to see a good cross-section of chambers within each pit that had been excavated or restored to differing extents. That was cool, as it gave you an idea of how these amazing sculptures were found. There's a whole variety of troop types represented and the statues really do have obviously different and unique facial features. I'd heard all the blurb, but it's much more startling in reality. The whole complex was actually. The number 1 pit is huge and protected by an enormous aircraft hangar.The number two pit was only slightly smaller, but less completely excavated, which was really interesting to me as you could see more clearly how the underground chambers were originally constructed - huge excavated pits lined with mud-brick walls and roofed with wooden logs. You could see how the roofs had sunk over time in some cases, clearly the cause of damage to the sculptures underneath. It was all extremely interesting and worth the initial shopping centre stress.
That day was also Russell's birthday and with Anthony in town with his family too, we went to celebrate. It was an unusual night. First bar we went into was nice enough, but marred by the badly out of tune piano. Second bar we came across was called 'Touch Bar' so we had to have a look. It was empty, apart from us, with bead curtains dividing up the space into booths, bizarrely enough with lace doilies on the backs of the chairs. Third bar had a decent enough covers band playing. Fourth was similar, except it was filled with well-soused middle-aged Chinese men, one of whom came over and was drunk at us before commandeering the mike to begin singing karaoke, at which point we left. Fifth had tall tables with stools that didn't always match, leaving Anthony sat almost chin-high to the table, which he really wasn't impressed by. It also had the most horrendous toilets of all. They'd been well used... The final bar we passed by was lit up in pink and playing Cher. Not enticing, but we were really running out of options by this point though so had a look. Turned out alright in the end. Again it was full of bead curtained booths, but had comfy sofas so we lingered for a while. Two other westerners were in there, a couple of Greeks. They were a bit random. One had strange 'I'm a music teacher' hair - long, dank, grey and straggly, yet arty at the same time. We invited them to join us after a while. It was cool. The barman was an excellent chap. We had a bit of banter going and after haggling the price down anyway managed to persuade him that he was making the drinks all wrong and proceeded to instruct him on how to pour a proper whisky and coke. It left us with about a triple of Jack Daniels each and one can of coke between the three of us. He was so pleased that he gave us all a free top up! It was horrible! Anthony and I kept topping up Russell's glass with our drinks when he wasn't looking. He didn't seem to mind. For some strange reason we also decided to have some Baileys, which the barman had never served before, so of course we told him how. It looked like we were drinking milkshakes. We drained the bottle! It was a good night...
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