# Terracotta Army, Xi'an, Xi’an

> The Terracotta Army is the excavated pit museum of China's First Emperor in Lintong, about 40 km east of central Xi'an, with thousands of clay soldiers and his burial mound. One ¥120 ticket covers both, booked ahead with your passport. It opens daily at 8:30, last entry 17:00 (16:30 mid-November to mid-March). Allow about 3 hours on site.

Web page: https://yesgo.io/china/xian/terracotta-army

- City: [Xi’an](https://yesgo.io/china/xian), China
- YesGo score: 51/100 (Yes, go)
- Time on site: 3 h
- With kids: Fine with kids
- Ticket: ¥120 all year — warrior pits plus Lishan Garden (the burial mound), valid one day
- Children: Foreign children up to 1.4 m free with a parent, booked in advance
- Concessions: Student ¥60 and free entry for over-65s apply to Chinese nationals; nothing stated for foreigners
- Booking: Advance only, named, with your passport: official website or the museum's WeChat accounts
- Booking window: 7 days ahead according to travel guides — the museum doesn't publish it
- Hours: 16 Mar–15 Nov entry 8:30–17:00; 16 Nov–15 Mar entry 8:30–16:30
- Closed: No weekly closing day in the official schedule
- Daily cap: 65,000 visitors, then sales stop
- At the gate: Original passport used for the booking; ticket, ID and person must match
- Pits to mound: Free shuttle; electric carts ¥5 at the museum, ¥15 in Lishan Garden
- Metro and bus: Line 9 to Huaqingchi, Exit C, then bus 602 or 613
- Paying on site: Cafés and shops mostly take Alipay and WeChat Pay; carry some cash
- Address: Qinling North Road, Lintong District, Xi'an (秦陵北路)
- Coordinates: 34.38500, 109.27306
- Facts checked: 04.11.2026

## Key facts

- **1974** — farmers digging a well struck the first warrior fragments (source: English and Russian Wikipedia)
- **8,000+** — soldier figures estimated across the three pits (source: English and Russian Wikipedia)
- **¥120** — one ticket for the pits and the mound, same price all year (source: Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum, official website)
- **246 BC** — work on the tomb began, when the future emperor was 13 (source: English and Russian Wikipedia)
- **210–209 BC** — the army was buried with the emperor (source: English and Russian Wikipedia)
- **≈ 700,000** — workers on the project, according to the historian Sima Qian (source: English and Russian Wikipedia)
- **1.5 km** — from the warrior pits to the emperor's mound (source: English and Russian Wikipedia)
- **1987** — the First Qin Emperor's mausoleum became a UNESCO World Heritage Site (source: English and Russian Wikipedia)
- **65,000** — visitors a day — the museum's cap (source: Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum, official website)
- **≈ 1.5 h** — for each of the two areas — the pits and Lishan Garden (source: Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum, official website)

> **No booking, no passport, no entry** Tickets are **named and sold in advance only**, against your passport number. At the gate your original passport is checked against the booking — a photo, a copy or a different passport won't work. Around the May Day holiday and the first week of October, dates sell out days ahead, so book as soon as your day is fixed.

## Terracotta Army tickets: price and how to book as a foreigner

A ticket costs **¥120 all year** and is valid for one day. It covers the three warrior pits, the exhibition halls and Lishan Garden, where the emperor's burial mound is, with a free shuttle between them. There's no walk-up sale at the gate: you book online, in your own name, with your passport.

There are three official channels: the **museum's website**, where you can choose a passport as your ID, and two WeChat accounts, 秦始皇帝陵博物院 and 兵马俑票务在线. The English version of the museum's site sends you to Trip.com for tickets, which is the easiest route if you don't use WeChat. Travel guides say each date opens **7 days ahead**; the museum doesn't publish the window, so start checking a week out.

Type your name and passport number exactly as in the passport. Children up to 1.4 m go free but must be added to an adult's booking. The museum's ¥60 student price and free entry for over-65s are written for Chinese nationals, so expect to pay the full fare. Refunds are possible until you pass the ticket check and go back to your card in 3–5 working days.

Paying: the booking channels and the metro run on Alipay and WeChat Pay, which accept most foreign Visa and Mastercard cards once linked and verified with your passport. Set this up before you fly. On site, cafés and shops mostly want app payments too, so carry a little cash as a backup.

## Terracotta Army opening hours and crowds

From **16 March to 15 November**, entry runs 8:30–17:00 and the site closes at 18:30. From **16 November to 15 March**, entry runs 8:30–16:30 and it closes at 18:00. Ticket checks at the pits and in Lishan Garden stop at the same time. There's no weekly closing day; holiday hours can change.

The museum admits up to **65,000 people a day**, then stops selling. Guides put the busiest stretch at 10:00 to 15:00, when tour coaches arrive. For Pit 1 without a wall of phones in front of you, come at opening time or after 15:00.

Mind the end of the day: the shuttle to the mound and the buses back to the city fill up, and DiDi pickups take longer at closing. Don't start your visit after 14:00.

## How to get to the Terracotta Army from Xi'an

1. From the **Bell Tower**, take **Line 6** east from Zhonglou station to the end of the line, **Fangzhicheng** (纺织城). The museum's own directions use Lines 2 and 1 via Beidajie, which also reach Fangzhicheng.
2. At Fangzhicheng change to **Line 9** towards Qinlingxi and ride 11 stops to **Huaqingchi** (华清池) — the station for Huaqing Palace, which many people combine with the warriors.
3. Leave by **Exit C** to the bus stop for **602** and **613**. Bus 602 runs to the 秦兵马俑 stop and 613 to 秦俑村; from there it's about 170 m to the entrance. Fares are a few yuan, by transit QR code or cash.
4. On holidays the 602 can be too full to board at Huaqingchi. Guides suggest riding Line 9 to the terminus, **Qinlingxi**, where the bus starts. Allow 1.5–2 hours door to door.
5. **Tourist Bus 5** (游5, route 306) runs direct to the pits. Recent guides say it now leaves from the Fangzhicheng transport hub; older ones place it at Xi'an Railway Station's East Square. Only board at a marked official stop.
6. A taxi or DiDi from the centre covers about 40 km in roughly an hour without traffic. Set 秦始皇帝陵博物院 游客服务中心 (visitor service centre) as the destination, and leave before closing time.

> **Fake buses, fake guides and replica museums** Around Xi'an Railway Station, people with official-looking badges claim bus 306 is broken, the museum is closed or tickets are gone, then steer you into minivans that stop at shops and replica museums full of resin copies, such as the 'Eighth Wonder of the World' hall. The real bus waits at a fenced stop and nobody needs to lead you to it. Your ¥120 ticket covers everything — there's no extra 'underground palace' fee. Hire guides inside, past the ticket check, not in the car park.

## What to see: the pits and Lishan Garden

- **Entrance** — the north entrance by the visitor service centre, about 15 minutes' walk from the car park according to guides, or ¥5 by electric cart.
- **Pit 1** — the biggest and the famous one: long parallel trenches with ranks of infantry. Go here first while it's quieter.
- **Pit 2** — cavalry, infantry, war chariots and kneeling archers.
- **Pit 3** — the smallest: a command post with officers and a chariot.
- **Exhibition hall** — finds from the pits and weapons you can't make out from the trench railings.
- **Shuttle to Lishan Garden** — free, from the square by the emperor's statue. The last runs queue at the end of the day, so leave the pits by about 16:20.
- **Lishan Garden** — the emperor's wooded burial mound and halls of finds from around the tomb. Guides say the bronze chariots, found in 1980, are shown here. An electric cart round the park costs ¥15.

## How long do you need, and is it worth it?

The museum suggests **1.5 hours** each for the pits and Lishan Garden — about 3 hours in all. Add 1.5–2 hours each way by public transport and it becomes most of a day.

Is it worth it? Yes, if history and scale move you at all: nothing else in the world looks like Pit 1, and it's the reason most travellers come to Xi'an. If you only have one day and won't spend half of it travelling, the [Shaanxi History Museum](https://yesgo.io/china/xian/shaanxi-history-museum) in the city is the better choice.

Expect a lot of walking between and inside the halls, which are vast, so dress for the weather and bring water and a snack — cafés on site mostly want app payments.

## What is the Terracotta Army?

The Terracotta Army is a **working excavation** rather than a gallery. Vast halls have been built over three pits found by farmers digging a well in 1974, and you look down on rows of soldiers, horses and chariots standing where they were placed over two thousand years ago. Its official name is Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum.

The figures were buried in 210–209 BC beside the tomb of **Qin Shi Huang**, the ruler who first unified China. Work on the tomb started in 246 BC, when he was 13, and the historian Sima Qian says some 700,000 labourers built it. Archaeologists estimate more than 8,000 soldiers, and only part has been dug out.

The emperor's mound itself, 1.5 km west of the pits in Lishan Garden, has never been opened. The whole mausoleum was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.

## Guided tour or on your own?

On your own is cheaper: a ticket and a few yuan for the metro and bus. The catch is booking with a passport in a Chinese-language system and paying through Alipay or WeChat, plus dodging touts at the bus stops.

A tour from Xi'an solves both: the ticket is issued in your name, you're dropped at the right entrance and driven back. A guide also explains what you're looking at — without one, Pits 2 and 3 can seem half empty. Many tours add Huaqing Palace on the way.

The middle way is to take the metro and hire an official guide inside, after the ticket check — never a 'guide' in the car park.

## Before you go

Tick off what's ready — your ticks are saved in this browser.

- [ ] Booking for my date, name and passport number exactly as in the passport
- [ ] Children under 1.4 m added to the adult's booking
- [ ] Original passport with me, not a copy
- [ ] Alipay or WeChat Pay set up with a foreign card for metro and bus
- [ ] Some cash in yuan
- [ ] Destination saved as 秦始皇帝陵博物院 游客服务中心
- [ ] Morning start, heading back before closing
- [ ] Water, a snack and comfortable shoes for 3 hours on foot

## Terracotta Army or Shaanxi History Museum?

|  | Terracotta Army | Shaanxi History Museum |
| --- | --- | --- |
| What it is | Excavated pits and the emperor's mound | Large museum of the province's history |
| Ticket | ¥120 | Free, but a booked ticket is required |
| Booking | Museum website or WeChat, with passport | The museum's WeChat account, with ID |
| Hours | Entry to 17:00, 16:30 in winter | 8:30–19:00 |
| From the Bell Tower | ≈ 33 km in a straight line | ≈ 4 km in a straight line |

Nothing replaces the warriors, but they take half a day with the journey. The history museum is close to the centre and also shows terracotta figures from the tomb. With two days in Xi'an, do both.

## Xi'an's historic sights compared

Historic sights in Xi'an rated by YesGo.

- [Terracotta Army](https://yesgo.io/china/xian/terracotta-army) — YesGo score 51/100 (Yes, go) · 3 h · ¥120, passport booking ahead
- [Great Mosque of Xi’an](https://yesgo.io/china/xian/xian-great-mosque) — YesGo score 44/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 45 min · ¥25, ¥15 in winter; Muslims free
- [Muslim Quarter](https://yesgo.io/china/xian/xian-muslim-quarter) — YesGo score 42/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h 30 min · Free, open 24 hours
- [Giant Wild Goose Pagoda](https://yesgo.io/china/xian/giant-wild-goose-pagoda) — YesGo score 41/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h · ≈ ¥10; pagoda climb ≈ ¥25 extra
- [Small Wild Goose Pagoda](https://yesgo.io/china/xian/small-wild-goose-pagoda) — YesGo score 41/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h · Free, advance booking with passport
- [Bell and Drum Towers](https://yesgo.io/china/xian/xian-bell-and-drum-towers) — YesGo score 39/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h · ¥30 per tower, ¥50 for both
- [Xi’an City Wall](https://yesgo.io/china/xian/xian-city-wall) — YesGo score 35/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 2 h · ¥54, bike ¥45 / 3 hours
- [Shaanxi History Museum](https://yesgo.io/china/xian/shaanxi-history-museum) — YesGo score 35/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 2 h 30 min · Free with booking; Tang murals extra
- [Mount Hua](https://yesgo.io/china/xian/mount-hua) — YesGo score 26/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 4 h · ¥160; cable cars ¥80–140 extra

## Warriors in the morning, old city by night

The pits and the mound in the morning, back to the city in the afternoon for the Bell and Drum Towers, then dinner in the Muslim Quarter. Add it to your route and YesGo works out the timings and walks.

1. [Terracotta Army](https://yesgo.io/china/xian/terracotta-army) — YesGo score 51/100 (Yes, go) · 3 h · ¥120, passport booking ahead
2. [Bell and Drum Towers](https://yesgo.io/china/xian/xian-bell-and-drum-towers) — YesGo score 39/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h · ¥30 per tower, ¥50 for both
3. [Muslim Quarter](https://yesgo.io/china/xian/xian-muslim-quarter) — YesGo score 42/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h 30 min · Free, open 24 hours

## Don't confuse

Touring 'Terracotta Warriors' exhibitions abroad show a handful of figures; this page is about the excavation site outside Xi'an. The Terracotta Army and Huaqing Palace are separate sites with separate tickets, though they share a road. Roadside 'museums' with copies have nothing to do with the official museum.

## Tips

- Arrive at 8:30 and head straight to Pit 1 — it's at its emptiest before the tour groups.
- See the pits first, then shuttle to Lishan Garden: you won't come back, and the last shuttles are packed.
- Screenshot your booking and the museum's Chinese name — signal inside the halls can be weak.
- Google Maps doesn't work in China without roaming or a VPN; use a local map app or an offline map.
- Ignore anyone at the station who says the bus is broken or tickets are gone — it's a scam.
- Pits 2 and 3 look modest without explanation — an audio guide or a guide inside pays off.
- No flash in the halls, and drones are banned around the site.
- Going by metro? Huaqing Palace by Huaqingchi station is an easy add-on on the way back.

## Questions

### How much are Terracotta Army tickets?

¥120 all year. The ticket covers the warrior pits, the exhibition halls and Lishan Garden with the emperor's mound, plus the free shuttle between them.

### How do foreigners book Terracotta Army tickets?

Online and in advance, in your name with your passport: on the museum's official website, its two WeChat accounts, or via Trip.com, which the museum's English site links to. There's no walk-up sale.

### Can I buy tickets at the gate?

No. Tickets are named and sold online only. If your date is sold out, try another day or a tour that includes the ticket.

### What are the opening hours?

Daily. 16 March–15 November entry 8:30–17:00, closing 18:30; 16 November–15 March entry 8:30–16:30, closing 18:00.

### How do I get to the Terracotta Army by metro?

Line 6 (or Lines 2 and 1) to Fangzhicheng, Line 9 to Huaqingchi, Exit C, then bus 602 or 613 to the museum. Allow 1.5–2 hours.

### Is there a direct bus?

Tourist Bus 5 (route 306) runs direct. Recent guides put its terminus at Fangzhicheng, older ones at Xi'an Railway Station's East Square — board only at a marked official stop.

### How long do you need at the Terracotta Army?

About 3 hours: roughly 1.5 hours for the pits and 1.5 for Lishan Garden. With public transport from the centre, plan most of a day.

### Is the Terracotta Army worth it?

Yes — Pit 1 is unlike anything else in the world. If you have one day and don't want half of it on the road, the Shaanxi History Museum is the alternative.

### Do I need my passport on the day?

Yes, the original passport used for the booking. Ticket, ID and person must match or you won't get in.

### Are children free?

Foreign children up to 1.4 m tall enter free with a parent, but they must be included in the booking.

## How we checked

Price, what the ticket covers, hours, the daily cap, booking and entry rules, the 1.4 m child rule and the metro route with buses 602 and 613 come from the museum's official website. The English home page gives different season dates (1 March and 30 November), but the Chinese visitor page and the English ticketing page both say 16 March and 15 November, which we use. The ticket shop page is behind bot protection, so the 7-day booking window comes from travel guides and is marked checking. Guides disagree on where bus 306 starts: recent ones say Fangzhicheng, older ones Xi'an Railway Station. Where the bronze chariots are shown is from a travel guide. History figures are checked against English and Russian Wikipedia.

## Sources

- Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum, official website (bmy.com.cn: home, visitor guide, English ticketing page) — price, what's included, hours, 65,000 cap, passport booking, children up to 1.4 m, refunds, carts, shuttle
- Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum, official website — metro routes and buses 602 and 613
- English and Russian Wikipedia: Terracotta Army, Терракотовая армия, Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor; Wikidata Q47672
- English Wikipedia: Xi'an Metro Lines 6 and 9
- China for Travelers, Travel China Guide, Wanderin China — booking window, bus 306, DiDi, fake buses and replica museums (unofficial)
- Shaanxi History Museum, official website — free booked entry and hours for comparison

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