Great place to visit – so much history it’s almost devastating. Took a guide near the entrance – 100 Yuan for the 8 of us, she spoke English pretty well.

Like almost all the guides in China, they make commission off the stuff you buy. They will steer you to a very nice shop with VERY nice VERY VERY expensive stuff. The statues here are “made with the real clay from pit 2” and can be “certified”. There is another place on site that sells the same statues (as far as I can tell) for a third. Anything you get here, you can buy in the cities (for example at HangQio in Beijing) for maybe a 10th the price. I got a 20” one for under 100 kuai ($12)

The “Original Farmer” who found the statues is ‘sometimes’ available to sign books. The books aren’t cheap. I saw the “original farmer” in 2 different buildings the same day, two very different looking “original farmers”. No pictures allowed of the farmer. I’ll upload one later.

Don’t let the enormous commercialism deter you. This place really is amazing. Pit 1 and 3 are great – pit 2 was ok, very little excavation there.