Man of Terra Cotta doesn't sound as impressive as Man of Steel, does it?

Apparently a whole bunch of Chinese emperors got on a kick to make lots (and I mean lots) of warriors out of clay and then bury them in elaborate tombs that cost more than the real estate in DC.   Didn't really make sense to me either but it was fun to see.

We actually started our Terra Cotta experience with the Han Yang Ling tombs which are a bit off the beaten track.  The manager at our hostel suggested them and pretty much the only information we had was the name written in Chinese.  We decided to take the local bus to the major bus station and just show the paper to people until we found the correct bus.  After an hour delay for taking the local bus in the wrong direction and then back again we reached the main bus station and started to ask around (asking involved pointing to the sheet of paper and then giving the "I don't know" shoulder shrug).  This ingenious method took us in several circles and at least 40 mins but we were finally directed to a bus and when we said Han Yang Ling the woman nodded.  We paid our $.50 and hopped on.  No one told us that the bus ride was an hour.  I definitely started to worry that (a) the bus didn't actually go where we wanted or (b) getting home wouldn't be easy.

Amazingly, we arrived at the tombs and even more amazingly the tombs were pretty cool.  The site was only discovered in 1997 and opened to the public in 2001.  It is similar to the famous Qin Terra Cotta Warriors except everything is in miniature and these tombs are much more focused on daily life.   It hasn't got onto the circuit yet so there weren't many people there and certainly not many Westerners.  The museum was beautiful though and all in English as well in Chinese.  The museum was actually built over the excavated tombs with the thousands of figurines so you could walk on top.  Pretty neat.

These miniature warriors set us up for our excursion the next day to see the famous Qin Terra Cotta Warriors.  These guys are life size and the faces are individually done (thought to represent the emperor's actual warriors).  The Warriors are the entire reason I went to Xi'an and they are a must see, but once you've seen them, well you've seen them.  You say "Oh how cool!," take a bunch of pictures, and then you are done.

The coolest thing we did in Xi'an was ascend to the top of the city wall at dusk and rent bikes.  Most ancient Chinese cities were surrounded by a wall (in case you haven't been able to tell, the Chinese were big fans of walls) and Xi'an is one of the few that has a fully restored wall.  It's about 13 km around and maybe 4 stories high.  All the way around at the top it is hung with red Chinese lanterns and the gate houses at the four compass points are elaborate traditional style buildings.