Some Archaeological Treasures of China Showing Signs of Age
ASIEH NAMDAR, CNN ANCHOR: Some of China's most important archaeological treasures are its terra cotta warriors and horses. The figures were discovered by peasants in the city of Xi'an 26 years ago. China's Shanghai Television reports these life-sized statues are beginning to go show signs of their age.</s>ZHOU YI, SHANGHAI TV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): China's ancient capital city Xi'an became the focus for the world in June 1998 when U.S. President Bill Clinton, his wife and daughter posed for pictures in front of Xi'an's famous 2,200-year-old terra cotta warriors. Soon after, enterprising travel agencies were offering a new form of sight- seeing package called the President's Tour. Hailed as 8th Wonder of the World, the 8,000 warriors and horses in the tomb of the Chinghua (ph), the first king to unify in 200 B.C., are back in the spotlight. In a recent study by Chinese archaeologists reviews that the ancient site faces major threats from erosion, shrinkage, and to a lesser extent, tourism. The Ching (ph) Dynasty terra cotta warriors were discovered 24 years ago by a peasant from the village of Xahu (ph). The find was opened to the public in 1979, and since then, over 34 million people have visited this archaeological site located in the west of China. In recent years, a dramatic increase in visitors from all over the world has commanded the difficult task of preserving the precious warriors from the past. Groups of visitors are causing constant changes in temperature around the ancient site. In many of the pits in the museum, ancient pieces have lost their color. Even the cotta warrior unearthed last year, which dazzled the world with its sharp green face and red hat, gives only a small indication of its original color. According to the director of Chinhua (ph) terra cotta warrior museum, Chinese and German scientists are currently working together to try and design a way of preventing the outer color of the terra cotta warriors from being eroded. When the terra cotta warriors were buried, no one would have dreamt this army would have one day be woken up from a 2,000 year sleep to stand attention to a U.S. president of the 20th century. Nevertheless, the exposure to day air and visitors is gradually robbing the terra cotta warriors of their color, form and shape. We can only hope that the work of scientists in the public concern will succeed in holding the gradual deterioration of these ancient warriors. This is Zhou Yi from Shanghai TV for CNN WORLD REPORT.