I visited China over Winter Break, and one of the most amazing sites I visited while I was there were the Terracotta warriors in the city of Xi’An. The Terracotta Warriors were commissioned by the first emperor of China, Chin Shi Huang Di, to protect him in his afterlife. They date from the third century B.C. The Terracotta Warriors are a Unesco World Heritage site and one of seven sites claimed to be the eighth wonder of the world. My parents were very excited to visit the site of Terracotta warriors. I was not that excited. However, when I got to the site on a snowy day in early January and witnessed the throngs of Chinese tourists making a mad rush to the front doors of the museum, as if they had spotted a famous person, I started to get really interested. As I walked into the museum, my jaw dropped when I got a peek through crowds of the hundreds of life size terracotta warriors lined up in battle formation. Each warrior was completely different from the next and mixed in between the warriors were some horses. The warriors were in various positions, kneeling, standing, ready to shoot an arrow. They had different faces, different hair and different clothing.

These statues were only uncovered in 1974 by farmers trying to dig a well. When the farmers initially unearthed the figures, they were painted bright blue, red and yellow. However, their vivid color was lost within seconds due to coming in contact with the dry air in Xi’An, causing them to become grey. Approximately 8,000 warriors have been uncovered to date with about 2,000 fully restored and upright.

There are hundreds more to be excavated. However, large-scale excavation has slowed until advanced preservation technology is available so that their beautiful colors are not immediately lost.

Also, most of the warriors were discovered in shattered pieces, and it can take months to put one warrior back together. While major excavation has slowed work continues on restoring the warrior pieces that have already been uncovered. Experts believe that it will take over 100 years to excavate all the warriors that lie buried.