Qin's Terra-Cotta Army

After working for the whole week in Suzhou, we decided to take the weekend off. We flew from Shanghai to Xian, which is located west of Shanghai, about 3 hrs by flight. Xian is one of the oldest cities in China and an important city on the silk road. Xian has over 3000 yrs of history with rich and vibrant culture. We checked in to the Shangri-La hotel and called it a night. The following day we rented a car at the hotel and drove to the museum of Terracotta Warriors. Local tour guides are not that expensive in China and the most efficient way to learn and explore any new place. So we hired one.

Terracotta warriors are a huge collection of life size sculptures resembling an army, that was discovered in Xian few decades ago by some local farmers near by. The terracotta army is called Qin's army. Qin was the self proclaimed first emperor of unified China. Apart from unifying China, his other major achievement was connecting and re-building walls, which is now called as the Great Wall of China.

The purpose of these clay sculptures or Qin' army was to help the emperor Qin, in his afterlife, somewhat similar to the Indian and ancient Egyptian's philosohy of afterlife. Qin believed that life under the ground continued after the life above. Hence the need for this army.

It was speculated that the construction of these sculptures was made on some sort of assembly lines. The arms, legs, heads and body were made separately and then brought together in some sort of assembly line production. Henry Ford was credited for developing assembly lines, however the Chinese had developed them in 200 BC. Thousands of people involved in the construction were later killed or buried alive to keep Qin's secrets.

After the visit, we bought a copy of Terra Cotta Army book and waited in line to get it signed by the farmer himself who discovered them.