Ancient China
and the Terracotta Army

For the first time in our country, and as a result of an initiative that began to take shape in 2008 during the official visit of President Bachelet to China and that was concluded after negotiations held by Alejandra Serrano, Executive Director of the Centro Cultural Palacio La Moneda, the Chilean public was able to behold one of China’s greatest treasures. The terracotta army was declared one of the World Heritage Sites and is considered the greatest archaelogical finding in the twentieth century.

The exhibition Ancient China and the Terracotta Army, organized by the Cultural Center in conjunction with the Shaanxi Provincial Relics Bureau of China and Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center of China, and sponsored by Banco de Santander and Minera Doña Inés de Collahuasi –with the support of the cultural grants act-brought part of the monumental sculptures commissioned in the year 240BC by the first emperor of China, Qin Shihuang. With the support of his army, Qin Shihuang built a great empire and developed an extensive network of roads and canals connecting the provinces. He also unified the country economically by standardizing the currency and unifying the Chinese script and legal code.