When I first saw the Terracotta Army during a national holiday in October, the place was so crowded you could hardly move. The 25-mile bus ride from Xi’an took 3½ hours and, once we got there, my friend Damian and I had to wait an hour in line to see the main exhibition.

My second visit was much more pleasant.

It’s low season for tourism in China, so there were no lines and the trip from Xi’an took less than an hour. Pat and I also had a guide, who provided a lot of historical information I didn’t get during my first visit.

Before arriving at the Terracotta site, we stopped at a factory/store that makes and sells souvenir replicas of the life-size clay soldiers, horses and chariots that were created more than 2,000 years ago to protect the tomb of China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang.

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The souvenirs cost anywhere from $13 for a miniature warrior to $2,700 for a bronze-coated, life-size statue of the emperor. The factory uses clay from nearby Mount Li (Black Horse Mountain), the same source used by the original makers – 700,000 workers who labored 35 years to build a clay army that would guard the emperor in his afterlife. (Their reward: getting buried alive to keep the project secret.)

We bought a couple of Terracotta figurines for my mom – a warrior and an archer – to replace one she got during a trip to China 18 years ago and subsequently broke. However, we resisted entreaties to spend $1,000 to have your own custom-made head sit atop a warrior’s body or up to $6,500 for one of the lacquer tables the factory also makes.

After making the short drive to the Terracotta site, we walked past a long line of souvenir stands and a massive theater under construction that will stage shows about the Qin Dynasty before arriving at the three pits containing the clay army. We started with the largest display in Pit 1, housed in an aircraft-hanger size building. About 2,000 warriors and horses are displayed there, but excavation is ongoing and they think another 6,000 or so clay figures are still buried.

The most amazing thing about the Terracotta soldiers is that every one was handmade and every one has a different face. Another astounding fact is that nobody knew they existed until 1974, when they were discovered by local farmers digging a well. (According to our guide, the government then confiscated their land and didn’t compensate them for it.)

When the soldiers were first unearthed, they still had their original painted colors – pink faces, blue pants and black armor with red stripes. But the colors quickly disappeared after they were exposed to the air, and now only a few traces of the red stripes can be seen on some of the figures.

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All the infantrymen originally were carrying weapons, but most of them were destroyed by a general who burned the pits after the emperor died. You can still see black ash from the fire on top of the support walls in the pit, along with the grave of a local farmer.

The pit contains thousands of broken pieces from the clay soldiers that must be meticulously reassembled by archeologists and craftsmen who work at the pit. Some of the soldiers that are currently being reconstructed are wrapped in cellophane to hold the pieces in place before they are glued together.

In addition to the three excavated pits, our guide said, there are believed to be another 700 unearthed pits containing as many as a half-million more clay figures in the area. Hey, it takes a big army to last an eternity.

The current pits are about a mile from the emperor’s actual tomb, which has never been excavated because river depictions inside the grave contain a lot of dangerous mercury.

After visiting Pit 1, we made brief stops at the other two pits. One represents the army headquarters and contains high-ranking officers, while the other provides a close-up view of standing and kneeling archers. We also saw a movie about the emperor and the history of the Terracotta Army in a theater where the pictures were projected 360 degrees on a circular wall.

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We ended our visit with a stop at the Terracotta museum, where we saw two bronze chariots that were found in the pits. Our guide referred to one of them as the “AC chariot’’ because it had a covered top and windows that acted as an ancient form of air conditioning.

We returned to our hotel for a brief rest, then went to a local dinner theater where we feasted on 13 varieties of dumplings and watched a music and dance show about the Tang Dynasty. Our driver’s van wouldn’t start because of a dead battery, so we took a three-wheeled taxi — a motorcycle attached to a covered passenger compartment — to the theater.

The show featured performers dressed in colorful period costumes singing, dancing and playing musical instruments. I wish I could tell you more, but I was so tired I fell asleep on Pat’s shoulder about halfway through.