[click for LARGE PANO view]
There is something different about Xi’an. It’s a small walled in city, very clean, spacious, low-rise buildings. And they don’t seem to give a shit about tourists! It’s great! No hassles, even in the markets, they just treat you like normal people. Awesome.
I stayed at the Bell Tower International Youth Hostel, which is literally next to the Bell tower! Fun and practical hostel with a hotel next door for families etc. They have two cute kittens who play around, and local Chinese students come in to practice their English and have a chat. Very friendly atmostphere and a great view at the Bell Tower opposite from their balcony. The rooms even had international plugs, no adapters required!
This is the best place to start in going to the Terracotta Warriors, with a public bus going directly there (the bus ceiling was about the height of my shoulders). There are three warehouse like structures over the excavations and helping protect the statues. Its quite a site when you first walk in. There are literally hundreds of statues in formation buried underground. They have different facial expressions (the artists are said to have looked to each other and in mirrors for inspiration), different clothes, weapons, horses and carts etc. There are over 8000 statues, and many of the soldiers are taller than me at 6′5″! They were buried with Emporer Qin, to help him rule in the afterlife. Amazing.
While soaking it in, I saw something that then really shocked me - originally there were structures and wooden beams covering the statues, which eventually caved and destroyed many of them, shattering them into pieces. Yep, most of the statues Currently in formation were previously parts of a jig-saw puzzle. Can you imagine? “Ok, see this statue here, and see that massive pile of broken bits and pieces there? They, have to look like this….”. It’s a nightmare! But somehow they managed to fit the pieces together and glue them back to their former glory, adding a little coat of dust covers up the cracks and you’d never know! 
They are still working on putting them back together.
THEN, we hear there is PAINT on most of them! Most of the statues are actually painted in detail as well! But they don’t yet know how to remove all the dirt and keep the paint preserved, so thats why they have a thick dirt covering.
