Earlier this year, we were fortunate to have the famous Terracotta Warriors from China come to Singapore to be exhibited at the Asian Civilisations Museum, the first time for such an exhibition to be presented in Southeast Asia. But what happens when you don’t have the chance to see the exhibition in Singapore? FOYer yg goes straight to the source to see the Terracotta Warriors in Xian, the ancient capital at Shaanxi Province in China.

yg writes:

the terracotta warriors and horses museum of xian is a must see for all visitors to this ancient city, formerly known as chang-an. after lunch on the day of our arrival in xian, we were on a mini-bus on our way to the lintong district to see the spirit army of emperor shi huang ti, the first emperor of china. a huge statue of the emperor greeted us as we arrived at the site.

the museum was built on the excavation site, which consists of 3 pits or vaults, covering an area of 16 300 square metres. when it was first open to the public on 1 oct 1979, the entrance fee was 10 yuan. today, it will cost you 110 yuan to gain admission into the museum premises.

the clay warriors had been buried for more than 2200 years before they were accidentally discovered in march 1974 by some farmers digging for a well. however, well before that other people living in that area had also stumbled upon broken pottery while they were clearing the land or digging wells.

Read about yg’s visit to the terracotta warriors in Xian here.