Xian - Terracotta Army
Sea Date, March 9, 2024 What an amazing sight! This army was built to protect Emperor Qin, China's first emperor, in the afterlife. The site is 22 miles square. Only a small portion has been unearthed. It was discovered in 1974 by a farmer digging a well. The Terracotta Warriors are actually quite colorful, but when exposed to the air, the colors disappear in under an hour, so the Chinese authorities are not unearthing anymore sites. They are working on a chemical process to protect the paint and then will resume excavation. The warriors are actually painted on lacquer. The lacquer falls off when exposed to air. The process of seeing the Warriors is interesting. Our guide told us we needed to push and use our elbows - not my style! There is a crush of people, mostly Chinese tourists, trying to get to the fence to overlook the Warriors. I felt I was being crushed at times. They really, really need Disney line engineers as consultants. The warriors had been attacked, broken a