Beneath a large, tree-covered mound at the foot of Mount Li, east of Xi'an, lies the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, who unified China in 221 BC and became its first emperor. He ruled for only eleven years more, dying in 210 BC, but in that time he standardised weights, measures, writing and the axle width of carts, linked the northern walls into an early Great Wall, and conscripted hundreds of thousands of labourers for his projects. The tomb mound, which still rises about fifty metres, has never been opened. The ancient historian Sima Qian wrote that the burial chamber held a model of the empire with rivers of mercury, and modern soil tests have found high levels of mercury around the mound.
What the world knows is the Terracotta Army. In 1974 farmers digging a well found fragments of clay figures, and archaeologists uncovered an astonishing army of thousands of life-size warriors, with horses and chariots, buried in pits about a kilometre and a half from the tomb to guard the emperor in the afterlife. Each figure has a different face, and many once carried real bronze weapons and were painted in bright colours, which have faded since they were exposed to the air. The site was listed by UNESCO in 1987, and excavation continues, with many figures yet to be uncovered.
The surrounding area is a farming country of pomegranate and persimmon orchards, and Lintong, the nearby town of about seventy-five thousand, is famous for its pomegranates, sold from roadside stalls in autumn. Close by are the hot springs at Huaqing Pool, a favourite retreat of Tang emperors, and the mountain where Chiang Kai-shek was arrested in 1936 in the Xi'an Incident. In the evenings, the town is lively, with night markets selling skewers, noodles and sweet persimmon cakes.
On the question of riding, foreign visitors need to know that travelling by motorbike in China is only possible with a complex set of permits, a local licence and normally a guide, so most arrive by train, coach or taxi from Xi'an, about thirty kilometres to the west. The roads in the area are modern, busy with coaches and trucks, and fuel is widely available. The site is crowded in summer and on public holidays, so go early in the morning or in the cooler months of April, May, October and November, and take time in the museum rather than rushing through the pits.