The underground kingdom of 2000 yr old mighty armies

Hi guys, this time i will take you all to Xi'an in China where i visited the terracotta army and the mausoleum of the first emperor in ancient China. Just a brief story on the background. The first emperor, Qin Shi Huang annihilated six other kingdoms during warring states in China about 2000 years ago and established Qin dynasty. The emperor is famous for his mighty and ruthless armies and his totalitarian state of power centralization which impacted the rest of china history heavily till recent decades.

There were few historical writings and records about the tomb of the first emperor. In 1974, local villagers discovered pits of terracotta armies. Estimated 8000 life sized statues of warriors and horses were uncovered and this event shocked the world tremendously. Former French President Jacques Chirac described the terracotta army as the eight wonder of the world. When i visited them, it was breathtaking and stunning from viewing platform.

Many may confused that those terracotta armies were excavated from the tomb of the emperor. In fact, the pits of the statues were located distant away from the tomb. The tomb is still buried intact underground today under a mountain.

The mystery of the tomb shall remain for the time being and perhaps the next generations will have the opportunity to unearth it.

I came back with some collections. I bought 2 books and postcards with autograph of an old man who claimed to be one of the villagers discovered the statues. It is a nice souvenir for me.