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The Emperor's Terra-Cotta Soldiers Keep the Tourists Marching In


The story begins more like Gothic fantasy than the headline news it was. In 1974, villagers digging a well outside the city of Xi'an in central China unearthed a head of terra cotta, its features eerily lifelike and alert. In truth, there had been precedents. Over the centuries, farmers tilling the fields had plowed up the odd head or hand, suspected demons and bitten their tongues. This time, the find made history. There were more heads -- no two alike -- where the first came from, and bodies to go with them: a standing...