Today we visited one of the most popular historical sites in all of China: The Terra-Cotta Warriors. Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, had over 8,000 sculptures depicting his army built to protect him in the afterlife. The warriors stood over 2 meters tall to portray a strong and powerful image. Building the warriors started in Huang’s early teens and took nearly 700,000 workers to complete the army. It was astonishing to see the lifelike figures stand together at the museum; it’s no wonder why the museum has so much tourist attraction.

After a trip to the museum, we took a bike ride on the city wall of Xi’an. The wall has a perimeter of about 8 miles and contained the original city of Xi’an. The city wall served as a protective barrier from the Mongols during the Ming Dynasty. The wall is also one of the oldest and best preserved in all of China. It was amazing to ride along the entire wall and it gave me a better perspective of how large the area contained within the wall is.