Terracotta Soldier

The recent exhibition for the Terracotta Army of the Qin dynasty at the National Museum of History in Taipei is actually quite interesting. There aren't as many artifacts as I expected, but still plenty enough to give people a good idea of what China was like thousands of years ago.

For those who've never heard of the Terracotta Army, they are replica figures of life-size soldiers that were meant to be buried with Qin's first emperor so that he can continue to conquer/rule wherever he is going after death.

Personally, I felt the ticket price is a little expensive considering the size of the exhibition (NTD 400), but I got lucky as a lady sold us her extra tickets for half the price. Nonetheless, there were plenty of visitors yesterday, mostly parents with their kids (homework for the summer vacation perhaps?). The exhibition lasts till 8/2 so if anybody is interested, you better hurry.

Since we're not allowed to take photos of the authentic Terracottas inside, I had to settle on the replicas outside the museum. Actually, you can even buy one if you like them so much (NTD 10,000+ ). And if you are wondering what that mysterious looking thing is on the bottom left hand corner of the picture, it is a 2D barcode. You will need to download QuickMark's application either to your mobile phone or your PC (webcam required) to read it. If you scan it with your QuickMark enabled webcam, it will take you right to where the Terracottas were first discovered. Check it out!