Terracotta Army

Day 7:  Xian.   The only blip one can take in this town has without doubt to be the Terracotta Warriors.  A truly amazing experience and especially considering these figures were installed over 2,000 years ago.  They depict the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China and were buried with him in 210–209 BC with the purpose to protect him in his afterlife.  Discovered by a farmer in 1974.  Each warrior has unique facial features.  They were originally painted with pigments, pink, red, green, blue, black, brown, white, lilac, these now faded or flaked off.  It's astonishing to think of the skills and planning that went into this in the first place (planning started when the empower was 13 years old ..) but also the fact of these technologies being around 2,000 years ago. And then being forgotten about for the next 2,000 years until the tomb was 'discovered' in 1974. Also impressive is the restoration and what China has done in terms of practical access to enable literally millions of visitors to see it every year. And to top it all the current discoveries represent apparently only about 15% of what lies in the tomb complex.

There is obviously much much more to explain.  One needs to see to believe.  I've added 10 extra photos today. The modern chariot was my taxi ride to the tran station.

Back to Beijing on the overnight express and tomorrow morning on to North Korea.  Stay tuned.