Tough Crowd: China's Terra Cotta Warriors at the National Geographic Museum

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THE LIFE-SIZE CLAY FIGURES are an imposing lot, with intricate armor and solemn faces to indicate their task of accompanying China's first emperor, Qin Shihuangdi, into the afterlife. The soldiers, archers, musicians and generals now stand in the National Geographic Museum in "Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor," which runs through March.

The figures, made nearly 2,000 years ago, were discovered in huge underground pits outside the city of Xi'an in 1974. Shihuangdi's tomb complex was massive, taking 36 years to make, and it's estimated that there are 2,000 soldiers and hundreds of chariots and horses in the pits. The exhibit includes 15 warriors, weapons, armor and coins, among other objects, excavated from the tomb complex.

D.C. is the fourth and final U.S. city to host the "Terra Cotta Warriors" exhibit, and they have also been on display at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, Calif.; Atlanta's High Museum of Art; and the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

Susan Norton, the Museum's director, said that the Bowers Museum has been a longtime partner of the National Geographic Museum, and they arranged for the exhibition to come to D.C.

"It means so much because we call ourselves the little museum that could," Norton says. "We're a small museum, but we're part of an international organization and this is the biggest thing we've ever done. It's such a high profile exhibit that it puts us on the map."

Norton notes that the show requires twice as much exhibition space as any show the museum has ever done: "Space that was used for a television studio became exhibition space. It's also the most fragile show we're ever had, and it's the first ticketed exhibition we've ever done. The traveling costs require us to have a small ticket price to offset some of those costs."

The PIMCO Foundation is providing 200 free tickets on a first-come, first-served basis each Wednesday evening, when the exhibition will be open for extended viewing hours until 9 p.m.

Rich McWalters, the Museum's director of exhibits, says that the more than 100 objects on display arrived from Houston in about 50 crates.

"The things you have to do [to set up the show] are the same as with others we've done, but it's on a much larger scale," he says. "We had to plan extra hard so we would have enough time to do what we have to do. We usually have a month between closing one exhibit and opening a new one, but we allowed more time with this one and added two weeks to that window."

McWalters says the Museum hired a team of professional art handlers, including Ben Gage, a local artist and art handler with rigging experience, to help set up the show.

"We set up a barrier with an alarm system to go around the warriors," McWalters says. "That way the aesthetic is there and you can see the pieces unobstructed."

Some area restaurants are offering specials to coincide with the exhibit. P.F. Chang's China Bistro, an exhibit sponsor, is offering discounted tickets in its local restaurants and is co-sponsoring the Chinese New Year Festival the museum is hosting on Feb. 6. The Willard Hotel is offering a Chinois-inspired tea, while Mie n Yu is offering a $49 four-course regional Chinese tasting menu, which comes with a complimentary exhibit ticket. Asia Nine hosts a Chinese dinner Dec. 2 with a performance by artist Chi Chang, who travels with the exhibit, and TenPenh will offer a rotating lunch special and a three-course dinner, each week showcasing a different spice prominent in Chinese cuisine. It's also holding a cooking class with chef and cookbook author Susanna Foo on Saturday.

It's not just restaurants getting into the Warriors-hype — Destination DC is offering "Weekend Warriors" hotel packages and the Folger Shakespeare Library has an exhibition on Renaissance views of China.

Norton says that this is "a wonderful opportunity for people to experience China's great archaeological treasures in Washington, an international capital."

"It's a great opportunity for people who can't get to Xi'an, China, to see this exhibit," she says. "We know the name recognition is incredible and a lot of people know about them."

» National Geographic Museum, 1145 17th St. NW; through March 31; $12 for adults, $10 for seniors, students, military and members and $6 for children. 202-857-7588, warriorsdc.org. (Farragut North)

Written by Express contributor Amy Cavanaugh
Photos by Kate Baylor/National Geographic