Terra-Cotta Warriors and Soldiers Museum, Xi'an, Shaanxi > Reviews (5)

The Terracotta Warriors tend to get listed as one of China’s must-see attractions. The history behind these is that the first emperor of China wanted a magnificent tomb, so he commissioned the building of it while he was still a young man and they worked on it for over thirty years. One of the things built was a massive army of life sized warriors made out of terracotta, hence the name. About eight thousand warriors were built, each with different faces and expressions because the sculptors modelled the warriors’ faces on themselves.

After the emperor’s death, however, there was an uprising. People got into the tomb and smashed apart the warriors, taking their weapons to use in the rebellion. The warriors were then broken and forgotten about. The warriors were discovered again in the 1970s by farmers in the region. Since then, a massive museum has been built about them with experts working to preserve and reconstruct the warriors.

When you approach the museum, the first thing you see is a massive amount of tourist shops. We were walked through what felt like a small town comprised entirely of shops selling junk to tourists. We didn’t get pestered too much to buy things (less than most of the other places visited on the tour) so we came through to the entrance of the museum with our wallets intact.

The museum itself is made up of several buildings that have been constructed around the warriors in their original setting. Our first stop was a building that was a combination gift shop and cinema. The cinema played a 15 minute film about the warriors on about ten screens round in a circle, with each screen showing different images. It made it rather difficult to know where you should be watching but gave a basic introduction to the warriors. The gift shop also sometimes has, signing his name in books about the warriors, the farmer who discovered the warriors. He looked rather bored.

The next building we went into was the largest. It housed trenches with the warriors standing in them. Near the entrance to the building were reconstructed warriors standing in ranks. Further bank, the trenches held broken pieces awaiting attention. At the very back of the room was an area where the warriors were being reconstructed. I was actually a little disappointed by this because I hadn’t realised how damaged the warriors would be. I went into the museum expecting to see eight thousand model warriors in an army. Instead, there were maybe a couple of hundred that had been put back together.

They were still impressive, and I’ve got a lot of respect for the dedication of the people who spend day after day rebuilding these things, but it still wasn’t quite what I was expecting. We were also separated from the warriors on a raised walkway. I’d hoped to get a little closer.

Another building housed models of personal guard. Or, more accurately, a lot of broken pieces of the statues of the personal guards. As with the first building, most of the warriors were in broken fragments.

Another building was even more disappointing. The archaeologists had discovered another group of warriors but had decided to leave them buried because otherwise the paint on the warriors would fade when they were brought to the surface. So this massive hall just appeared to contain mounds of earth, with signs around the edge explaining what type of warriors were under what mounds. We couldn’t see a thing. In fact, on seeing the contents of this building, one member of the tour group declared that it was all a conspiracy.

There were, in glass cases at the edge of the room, examples of some of the warriors. One was a kneeling archer – the only warrior so far to have been found entirely intact. There were also a couple of reconstructed officers, including a general. We could get close enough to see these clearly and they were definitely impressive when you consider their age.

The final building we went into housed some metal chariots, complete with metal horses. Unlike the warriors, these were built on smaller scale. This building had two chariots in glass cases along with some examples of weapons that had been found around the site for the warriors.

Despite my initial disappointed, the site was still very impressive. I have to admire the people who’ve spent years rebuilding these warriors. I also have to wonder about the emperor who was so worried about people coming after him when he was dead that he thought he needed an army of eight thousand warriors to defend him in the afterlife.

The warriors are listed as one of the great sites to see for a reason and, if you’re in the area, definitely go see them. But go in with your expectations set right about what you’ll see. The museum is worth it as part of a larger China tour, but I wouldn't make this your reason for going to China.