The Army of Terracotta Warriors is what really puts Xian on
the map for western tourists . In traveling through China the number of western
tourists is absolutely swamped by the huge multitudes of Chinese who now have
the money to travel and explore their country. The Terracotta Warriors outside
of Xian are one of the few exceptions, one of those half dozen or so must-see
sights for westerners on a whirlwind tour of China along with the Great Wall
and Forbidden City, a Yangtze Cruise, and the karst formations around Guilin.

The Army of Terracotta Warriors was discovered by peasant
digging a well in 1974 who found an underground vault that eventually was found
to have thousands of life-size terracotta soldiers and horses in battle
formation. Historians have figured out these are all part of the tomb complex
of Qin Shi Huang, an emperor who unified China an died around 200 B.C. The
figures he was buried with are believed by archaeologists to have been intended
to help him continue his rule in the afterlife.

As one of the world’s premier archaeological the Terracotta
Army is impressive . Most of it is in Pit 3 covered by a gigantic airplane
hangar like building. Two smaller pits have more standard museum buildings
built around them, and there is also a museum on site which features many other
artifacts found in the area.

I also visited the Army of Terracotta Warriors in 2006 on my
Silk Road trip across Asia. Although the site is under continuous excavation
and there are many archaeologists trying to piece together broken warriors,
there appeared to be little change to what is on display over the eight years
between my visits. What is different, though, is the large entertainment,
shopping, and dining complex that has sprung up (like at most sights in China)
between the parking lot and the archaeological complex.

We continued our western tourist experience in Xian by
attending an evening dumpling banquet and cultural show. Dumpling banquets are
something apparently quite unique to Xian and consist of multiple courses of
steamed dumpling brought to the tables in a dinner theater . The dumplings all
have different shapes and stuffing with chicken ones shaped like chickens, fish
ones shaped like fish, etc. The delicate flavors and accompanying sauces were
fantastic. Although definitely designed to appeal to foreign tourists, the
cultural performance of music and dance was top notch and well worth the price and
time, a sentiment I often don’t feel when it comes to cultural performances for
tourists.