Terracotta Army

Tickets and tours: all the options

The official ticket for the Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum covers the three warrior pits, the exhibition hall and the Lishan Garden around the emperor's burial mound, linked by a free shuttle bus. Tickets are real-name and must be booked online in advance with your passport, which is also checked at the gate. Official guides can be hired at the entrance by the hour, and audio guides are available.

Most of what GetYourGuide sells adds transport and a guide, because the site is 35 km from the city. There are shared minibus tours with an English-speaking guide, private half-day and full-day tours by car, and combinations with the Huaqing Palace hot springs at the foot of Mount Li, sometimes with the evening song-and-dance show about the Tang emperor and his consort. Full days often add Xi'an's city wall, the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and the Muslim Quarter. Ticket-booking services exist mainly to deal with the Chinese-language booking systems. Most tours include entry, but check, and check whether lunch and shop stops are part of the day.

For a first visit, a guided small-group or private half day is the sensible choice: the halls have limited English signs, and a guide makes the pits far more interesting.

A short history

Ying Zheng became king of Qin at thirteen in 246 BC, and work on his tomb began soon after. By 221 BC he had conquered the rival states and ruled as Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor; according to the historian Sima Qian, some 700,000 labourers built the mausoleum. He died in 210 BC, and the army was buried in pits east of the tomb. Soon after the dynasty fell, rebels are thought to have burned the pits. In March 1974 farmers digging a well found fragments, and excavations revealed three pits; the museum opened over Pit 1 in 1979. UNESCO listed the mausoleum in 1987, and digging still continues.

Getting there

The museum is in Lintong, about 35 km east of central Xi'an. The easiest public route is metro line 9 from the city to Huaqingchi station, about an hour from the centre with a change, then a short bus or taxi ride to the museum. Tourist bus 5, also numbered 306, leaves from the east square of Xi'an railway station and takes about an hour; use only the official bus, not touts. Taxis and ride-hailing cars from the centre take about 50 minutes. Xi'an Xianyang airport is about 80 km away. From the car park and bus stop, a walk of about 15 minutes leads through a shopping street to the entrance.

Rules and what to bring

Bring your passport: it is needed to buy and use the ticket and at the security check. Flash photography, tripods and drones are not allowed, and touching the figures or climbing the barriers is strictly forbidden. Large bags may be refused, so travel light. There are toilets, drinking water and cafes in the visitor area and outside the pits. Wear comfortable shoes: the walks between halls, to the Lishan Garden shuttle and back to the car park are long.

When to go

The halls are busiest from about 10 am to 2 pm, when tour groups from Xi'an arrive. Be at the gate at opening, start in Pit 1 before the coaches, and use the afternoon for the smaller pits and the exhibition hall. Weekdays are much calmer than weekends.

Avoid Chinese national holidays if you can: the Golden Week at the start of October, the Spring Festival in January or February and the May Day holiday bring huge crowds, and the summer school holidays in July and August are busy and hot, often above 35 degrees outside. April, May, September and October are the most pleasant months. The halls are indoors, so rain matters little, but they are unheated and cold in winter, when visitor numbers are lowest. Allow three to four hours on site, plus about two hours for the return trip from Xi'an.