China

More than 500,000 people, involving many trades, worked on the tomb of the emperor by setting thousands of terracotta warriors ! The emperor, who feared death, ordered this work as soon as he came to the throne at the age of 13. The work lasted 36 years until his death...
The statues of 1.70 m (5.7 feet) to 1.90 m (6.3 feet) represent life size warriors although slightly higher than the size of people of that time. They were painted and could be accompanied by terracotta horses : there were riders, archers and infantry. Every face, hair and expression is unique !

This is unbelievable and one of the most important site in China with the Great Wall (already ordered by the emperor Qin !) and the forbidden city.

Once there, we can also watch short films including an interesting one in a 360° panoramic.

In addition to this, the tomb of Qin, a little away from the buried army and under a mound would consist of an arch of glittering precious stones and a sea of mercury (no less !) on which float the sarcophagus of the emperor... all this in the conditional as it is still unexplored, partly because the question arises about the possible emanation of a large amount of mercury if an opening was made in the tomb. The hypothesis of the presence of mercury seems to be taken seriously by archaeologists because of measures showing that mercury levels are higher than normal near the site...

It was definitely a habit ! An emperor from the next dynasty (Han), emperor Jingdi, had also built a tomb with hundreds of terracotta warriors and characters of his court, but those of small size, around 60 cm (2 feet) tall. They had wooden arms (in order to be articulated) and clothes. We can still distinguish the sex of the figurines (male or female) and even recognize the eunuchs... There were also many terracotta animals.

These figurines have been discovered recently in 1990 when building a road leading to the airport, close to the site. Access info

It is worth seeing as it is a shrine to Buddha Sakyamuni but the trip is 2h by bus from the station, and adding the visit and lunch, it almost takes all the day => not done because of lack of time...

To be seen : the walls (e.g. near the south gate), the bell tower, the drum tower, the hui district (Chinese Muslims) and its great mosque built in the 8th century during the Tang, the forest of steles.
Extra muros : small and large wild goose pagoda (not seen).

A word about the forest of steles... As its name suggests, they are steles, most from the 9th century, with Confucius texts inscribed in ideograms during the Tang period. They were placed in an ancient temple of Confucius in the 11th century to protect them. One of them, the "stele of Xi'an", speaks of the Nestorian branch of Christianity. The Nestorians, Eastern Christians, arrived in China in the early 7th century and thus were probably the first Christians of China, long before the Jesuit Matteo Ricci (16th century). They had a different approach of the nature of Christ than the Roman Church. Their religion disappeared from China in the 9th century.
It is likely that this community inspired the legend of Prester John in the West during the twelfth century; according to this legend, a Christian priest called John, lived in the Far East where he fought and defeated the Persians. Many explorations tried to discover the kingdom of Prester John. In fact one of these explorations led by Portuguese discovered another Christian land in Ethiopia in 1490.
See also, the stele "image" of Confucius, more "recent" as dating from 1734.
We can attend to the achievement of copies made by stamping (technology widely used in Xi'an).
Farther away, there is a gallery of sculptures including a huge rhinoceros (rather unusual) from a mausoleum, sculptures of horses, and an intact tomb of a Han emperor.

One can easily spend four days in Xi'an. There is also mount Huashan and a zoo.