Xi’an Terracotta Warriors
What a truly amazing site to see! The whole place is really set up to be a contained tourist trap around the pits where the Terracotta Warriors are. Even at that it is worth the time. I should explain that rather harsh statement too.
Once inside the gate, you need a ticket for about 110 CYN you will see a few places to buy souvenirs and there are places to buy stuff in each of the “pits”. Back behind Pit #1 there is a restaurant. If you go on a tour through a company and lunch is included this will be the place you will eat at. Food is good we thought too. All over the grounds there will be people selling sets of the miniature versions of the Warriors. So far doesn’t it sound like you will be followed outside the buildings by people wanting you to buy things; then each building has a store and don’t forget the stores that are standalone selling stuff too. Believe me shopping is not a problem there.
Now the guys that are selling the sets, and they do everywhere, do sell pretty cheap. You just have to negotiate with them. Our guide steered us away from buying any from these guys. I guess he did that because he took us to a factory store. I can tell you though these guys do give pretty good deals if you want to get something for gifts and not have to pay the store premium price. But it is street goods so you have to watch what you buy.
Pit #1 is the one that you see when you see a picture of this place and there are other pits you can go through but if you want to see the other pits – go through them before going to Pit #1. Now that seems strange you are thinking. It would seem like going through them in order would be the best way. Well, you can do it that way if you want, but I wouldn’t having gone through them. Pit #1 is the best; I think you could spend a couple hours in there taking pictures if you had the time. There are other things worth seeing in the other pits but it seems like they don’t have the impact pit #1 has. Another thing to keep in mind is we were there on the off season and there wasn’t as many tourists there. I can only imagine what it is like during peak season.
There is an ok overview film in the theater the guides usually have you watch before going to the Pits – it does give you a sense of what happened and why no one knew about them. But I am not going to spoil that surprise – oh no not me