Trip to the Terracotta Warriors

The famous army of Terracotta Warriors were discovered underground by chance almost 40 years ago.

As a group of farmers dug a well, they came across a broken clay figure and alerted the Chinese authorities.

Little did they know then, but in March 1974 they had unearthed one of the 20th century's greatest archeological finds - an army of at least 8,000 terracotta troops.

The warriors - which all have different faces - were there to protect the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, China's first emperor.

They were buried underground in around 210BC and forgotten about.

Warriors are still being found - and it could be decades before all the terracotta figures are discovered.

The find put Xi'an, south west of Beijing, on the map as a tourist destination for foreign travellers.

Yang Zhifa, the lead farmer who made the find was paid just 10CNY - which translates to £1, or around a months wages back then, the tour guide said.

He now spends his days sitting in the gift shop looking miserable and signing copies of a book about the site. It didn't appear to be a bestseller.

Mr Yang is reputedly paid just £2 a day for his services and appeared thoroughly unhappy.

He is feted as a superstar - but one gets the impression he is forced to sit there day in, day out.

A large sign next to him says "no photos", and every time a visitor tries to get a sneaky shot of him he ducks out of the way in a thoroughly undignified way.

I was left wondering whether he wishes he never found the damn things in the first place.

The warriors themselves are around 30 miles outside of Xi'an. Although the city itself is a popular spot for western travellers, there is not much else to be seen.

The city is compact by Chinese standards - and it certainly had a small town feel after we had visited Beijing.