Ancient terracotta soldiers are seen in the No.1 pit of the Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum on October 24, 2007 in Lintong of Shaanxi Province, China. (Photo : Getty Images)
The police of Xi'an have destroyed imitations of the world-famous statues in a fake resort that have been scamming tourists. The district government has vowed to restore order to the city's tourism market.
Located in Lintong district, the same area as that of the famous mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, police have raided a privately-owned tourist attraction which housed the fake statues. The "Suyuanqinhuangling Resort" spans an area of over 600 square meters and has forty copycat terracotta warriors on display.
The Qin Emperor's mausoleum has attracted visitors from all over the world. It houses an army of more than 7,000 life-sized terracotta warriors and wooden chariots.
"I was on the way home to Gansu province for my winter vacation and stopped in Xi'an to visit the warriors," said Beijing-based college student Xia Nian, "but I was cheated by being shown the fake ones and paid nearly twice what it costs to visit the real museum.
"There were some illegal one-day tour buses around the railway station and I could not distinguish between the illegal and legal buses." She filed a report with the Xi'an police last week.
Xia is only one of many who have been victims of fraud in Xi'an.
A netizen wrote an article about her experience in Xi'an. After being posted about more than a week ago, the article went viral and alarmed authorities.
"Xi'an, an interesting city, where both tourist spots and liars are interesting," read the article. The writer also claimed that she was cheated by fake policemen and unlicensed drivers who took her to see the fake terracotta warriors when she visited the city last year.
It seems that fraud in the tourism market of Xi'an has been a long running problem left unresolved, or worse, treated non-existent.
"Many people refused to report to the police unless they suffered big losses, and some local governments have been turning a blind eye to this phenomenon for years," said Zheng, a local in the area.
But with the report of these recent cases, the local government has vowed to address the problem.
"We will resolutely eradicate the sources of tourism chaos and punish the illegal businessmen as well as government agencies and officials who are ineffective in rectifying the tourism market," said Liu Sanmin, head of Lintong district government.
By cracking down on fraud in the city's tourism, the government would be able to restore the tarnished reputation of the historical site and Lintong.
