It’s been described as the biggest exhibition Liverpool’s museums has ever hosted with people from all over the world expected to buy tickets to see the Terracotta Army.

Interest is growing around the world for the Terracotta Warrior exhibition which comes to the city later this year and tickets for the experience at our World Museum are on sale now.

Liverpool was selected as host due to its standing as the home of the oldest Chinese communities in Europe and the 10 Warriors making up the centrepiece of the display are a fraction of the 180 artefacts that will be on show, our sister publication the Liverpool ECHO reports .

A small army of designers, construction teams and museum staff are now working to transform a bright and airy 1,200 square foot gallery into a spectacular walk-through experience that will tell the story of China’s first 1,000 years.

More than half of the items in the exhibition, which opens on February 9, will never have been seen in the UK before.

Speaking exclusively to the ECHO, Fiona Philpott, director of exhibitions at National Museums Liverpool, said: “We’re going to be completely transforming the current gallery into a very dark, dramatic space because we have one of the most exciting exhibitions we’ve ever seen staged right here at the World Museum.

“It’s a fantastic, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Liverpool. Hopefully, we will be attracting tourists from all over the UK and indeed from Europe as well.

“We’ve been working on it for more than two years and we’ve really accelerated that process over the past eight to 12 months.

“At the moment we’re in the production phase, so it’s a hive of activity!”

A life-size terracotta horse is just one of the figures to be loaned to the Museum team. It is part of the collection first discovered by chance in the burial complex of Qin Shi Huang, China’s first emperor, in 1974 with further pieces being unearthed to this day.

David Fleming, National Museums Liverpool director, said: “This is a tremendous coup, not just for Liverpool for the whole of the UK.

“We are hugely excited to be working with our museum colleagues in China to bring a collection of Warriors and many other significant historical discoveries to the UK.”

The China’s First Emperor and the Terracotta Warriors exhibition will run until October 28.

Tickets are priced at £14.50 for adults and £5.50 for children aged between six and 17 years.

Children under five will have free access to the exhibition.

How to buy tickets

Full ticket booking details are on Ticketmaster or liverpoolmuseums.org.uk .

To get membership and qualify for the pre-sale, sign up here .

If you book your tickets through cashback site Quidco you can save £12 on your order, simply head to Quidco here and click through to Ticketmaster where you'll be directed to the Terracotta Warriors booking page.

Purchase the number of tickets you want and you'll be receive £12 cashback within 30 days.