The city of Xi'an (西安) in Central China has become one of the China's top tourist attractions over the past few decades and largely as a result of tourism has become a thriving, modern city. Things probably would have turned out much different for Xi'an if it wasn't for the accidental discovery of the now famous terracotta warriors (individually unique, life-size clay sculptures of ancient soldiers).
The first terracotta warriors were discovered in 1974 by local farmers digging a well near the city of Xi'an. Since then, thousands of soldiers have been excavated and are now on exhibit at the Museum of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang.
Recently, an additional 110 terracotta soldiers have been dug up after spending over 2000 years underground guarding their emperor who is supposed to lie nearby in his yet unearthed tomb. Qin Shihuang, who had this mind-boggling tribute to himself built (to guard him in the afterlife), unified the then-warring Chinese states in 221 B.C. and became the first emperor of what we in the West call China.
In addition to the soldiers, there are also terracotta horses and chariots as well as acrobats and musicians (to provide entertainment since they didn't have Internet and iTunes back then). According to China's official historian, Sima Qian, construction of the emperor's mausoleum began in 246 BC just after Qin became emperor and ultimately involved the work of 700,000 laborers (many of which were forced laborers such as prisoners and slaves).
Ironically, the Terracotta warriors may become best known in the West thanks to the corny 2008 movie The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. In the film, the very old and long-dead emperor and his terracotta army are brought back to life an end up fighting an "army of the dead" which is supposed to be all the workers who died building the Great Wall for Emperor Qin (in reality, most of the Great Wall as we know it today was actually built many centuries later during the Ming Dynasty but Hollywood and many accounts of Chinese history prefer to ignore historical accuracy). Maybe the newly discovered warriors merit a new movie although I guess that depends much more on box office receipts of the original.
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| Giddy-up, I'm ready for that sequel! |
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