With 8,000 thousand figures, 10,000 weapons, 670 horses, 130 chariots and three archaeological pits, it’s easy to see why the Museum of Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shi Huang in Xi’an is one of the most popular tourist attractions in China. I spent a half-day at the site on my recent month-long trip to the country and pulled together the following visitors tips.

First, A Brief History

This life-size clay army was buried near the tomb of Qin Shi Huang in order to guard him into the afterlife, as well as perhaps entertain him since figures of acrobats and musicians were included along with warriors. Qin Shi Huang was a bit of a badass who declared himself the first emperor of China after conquering the warring states surrounding his Qin state, thereby unifying them into the vast Asian country intact today. He ruled from 221 B.C. until his death in 210 B.C. Discovered by local farmers in 1974, the archeological site remains active, with ongoing digs and restorations.

(Photos: Donna M. Airoldi)

Site-Seeing Tips

• Decide whether to go by tour or on your own. If you go by tour, when reviewing prices, remember that the actual admission price to the museum is CNY90 (US$13).

• Getting there by tour. Whether you’re a luxury traveler or backpacker, odds are your hotel or hostel will be selling a day package to visit the Terra Cotta Warriors museum. Often these trips are paired with other nearby attractions, and prices will vary significantly. Make sure you choose a tour that includes admission to all the sites, gives you enough time at each place to actually see and enjoy them, and picks you up and drops you off at your hotel.

• Getting there independently. Save money and manage your own time by taking public bus No. 306 to the museum, which is the end point on the route. Cost is CNY7 (US$1) each way, with stops at the Tomb of Qin Shi Huang and Huaqing Hot Springs, and takes 30 minutes. Board at the Xi’an train station parking lot in the section to the right of the station as you face it.

• Bring binoculars or a camera with a telephoto lens. Except for a few figures enclosed in glass in Pit 2, you won’t get up close to any of the warriors in the three pits.

• Wear comfortable shoes. The ticket office is a long way from the parking lot, and the actual entrance even farther. It’s about a half mile in total, so not bad, but be prepared if you have any kind of foot troubles. Mini bus transport was available for some groups from the ticket office to the museum entrance.

• Audio guide. I enjoyed the self-guided audio tour, which includes about 90 minutes of information. Cost: CNY40 (US$4.85). As is the case in most museums in China, you need to leave a hefty deposit—CNY200 (US$30)—for the device, which you’ll get back when you return it. One drawback: Once you listen to a segment, you cannot go back and listen again.

• Hiring a guide. If you’re not already on a tour, you’ll be approached near the ticket office by independent guides-for-hire. Prices vary, so be ready to bargain. If you want a private tour, say so, otherwise you might end up as part of a small group your guide has pulled together.

• Be prepared for crowds. Bus loads of crowds. And these folks will not hesitate to push you out of the way for their perfect photo op. Busiest times are mornings and early afternoon. You can see the entire site in a couple of hours, so even if you don’t get there until 2 p.m., you’ll have plenty of time before the museum closes at 5.

• Skip the introductory film. Unless you want to chuckle at the 1970s made-for-TV production values of this film, head right to the excavation pits.

• View Pit 3 first, then Pit 2. The small Pit 3 has the lowest lighting and just 70 warriors and horses, but they were positioned face-to-face, suggesting this was the headquarters of the Terra Cotta Army. Pit 2 is larger, with more than 1,000 figures, including those kneeling while in a shooting position. Excavations are ongoing, and this is also the room where you can see five glass-enclosed warriors of differing ranks up close in order to appreciate the project’s craftsmanship and amazing level of detail.

• Save Pit 1 for last. This room is the most imposing and the most impressive. There are estimated to be about 6,000 figures buried here, most of which still haven’t been unearthed. You walk the circumference of the large pit, taking in the row upon row of warriors and horses. This room also is the hardest to maneuver through when the crowds are at their peak.

• Enjoy the surroundings. The area around the pits and other buildings is nicely landscaped with trees, flowers, paved paths, benches, and cafes and souvenir shops, for those needing a break or looking to take home a set of warrior miniatures.

Even if Xi’an isn’t on your travel radar, you can get an even better look at these impressive figures at the Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor exhibit opening Nov. 19 at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C., with 15 soldiers on view until March 31, 2010. Read TravelMuse’s coverage of the show from when it was in Atlanta earlier this year.

My Beijing trip has been very different from my usual visits to Asia, or elsewhere for that matter, where I pick a new destination and try to immerse myself in its culture and offerings while having a lot of down time to digest everything around me. Instead, this past week has been all about sports: getting to and from Olympic events, going to sports pubs to watch the Games on TV, getting into Olympic parties, figuring out if we can snag tickets to just one or two more events.

Well, duh, I did come over here to attend the Games.

I’m not sure whether because my focus has been on sports, or because I’ve previously spent a lot of time in large Asian cities, but I’ve noticed fewer major cultural differences that stand out compared to previous travels. Or is this the result of continued globalization and 21st century communications?

Nonetheless, here are a few things that definitely caught my eye the past week.

- Waiters want to serve you … fast. When seated in restaurants, the waiter hands you a menu, then stands and waits for you to order. It’s a little distracting and uncomfortable and makes you rush through the items (or at least it causes me to), which increases the chance of ordering errors—such as when I thought I had selected shredded chicken for lunch one day when I actually had inadvertently ordered chicken feet.

- Lines are kind of useless. I've experienced this in Thailand, Vietnam and elsewhere in Asia, but it's really noticeable in population dense Beijing. Doesn’t matter if you’re standing right behind a person buying a subway card, in front of the door of the train, going through a security check or trying to buy an entrance ticket to a venue, someone, or several people, will inevitably push you aside and get ahead of you. Accept this beforehand, and you’ll keep your cool longer.

- Big brother is watching. Security checks, police and cameras are everywhere, including every subway stop. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to put my day-pack through a scanner and had it subjected to hand searches where every zipper and pocket was gone through. Much of this is because of the Olympics being in town, surely, but also saw a statistic in the China Post the other day that New York City plans to add 3,000 security cameras around town while Beijing currently has 30,000 of them keeping an eye on things.

- People don’t let anything go to waste. While this is not specific to China, the people here give utility and recycling a new name—which is a good thing, as far as I’m concerned. This topic can be broken into subcategories:

Food. As has been well documented over the years, no part of any animal goes to waste (see chicken feet, noted above). Rodents and insects are at risk of being turned into dinner dishes as well. Even cooking oil is reused.

Recyclables. People on the streets collect paper for recycling—you’ll see wheeled carts piled sky high with discarded cardboard and other paper-based products being pulled down the street by individuals; others carry around large bags full of plastic bottles and come up to you on the street while you’re drinking from one, and wait for you until you’ve finished, then ask for it.

Electricity and water conservation. In the apartment building I’m staying in, lights in the lobby and hallways won’t go on unless you whistle or make a loud noise, then they go off automatically after a few minutes. This is common in many of the new high rises going up all around the city, I’m told. Individuals also will repurpose water—if washing dishes, they’ll collect the water in the basin when finished and use it to water plants, or collect water coming out of faucets while waiting for it to warm up and use that for cooking, hand washing or, again, watering plants.

- Children are allowed to relieve themselves in public. While this practice is not encouraged, I was told that it’s common to let kids go whenever and wherever they happen to be. Sure enough, the day after I heard about this I was walking through the Tiananmen Square subway stop during rush hour when I noticed a father balance his young daughter over a grate in the floor of the walkway while her mother lifted up her dress and the little girl squatted to do what she needed to while crowds rushed past. (No, I did not take a photograph.)

- Kite flying. People love it here! Any time I’ve been near a park, I just look up and will see dozens of dots in the sky. People go all out and buy big colorful and multi-tiered kites to soar over the city. When I see them it never fails to put a smile on my face.