The museum of qin terra cotta warriors at xi'an is a sight not to be missed by any visitor to china life-size clay figures of 7,000 soldiers,horses and chariots stand in battle formation these famous figures were discovered by chance in 1974 A group of workers found ancient pottery when they were digging a well the site caught the attention of archeologists immediately the warriors are from the tomb of Emperor Qin shi huang when he came to power between 221-206 B.C. At the age of 13 he began work on his tomb it took many years to complete