Workers in Beijing were carefully packing up historic warrior statues of its famed Terracotta Army on Tuesday for their journey to the US, for an exhibition that will travel around the country.

The latest loan follows last year's loan of artifacts to London's British Museum, China's biggest ever, for a massively successful exhibition there.

This time some of the warriors will go on display at the Bowers Museum in Santa Anna, California, in an exhibition due to open on May 18th.
Peter Keller, President of the Bowers Museum, was in Beijing to see the warrior statues being packed for transit to the US.

"Well, it's all about really what is going to have the greatest impact to learning, people in the United States, people in London, this exhibition was just in London at the British Museum, record crowds, and their focus was on the first emperor, Emperor Qin Shi Huang and how he unified China, and all that he did. We're taking the other half of the story which is the terracotta warriors themselves."

After Santa Anna, the exhibition will travel to Atlanta, Houston and Washington DC.

The exhibition is not the first to bring individual warriors to the US, but this shipment will include over 20 warriors, many partial statues and numerous artifacts that have never been shown before. These pieces are particularly valuable because they include warriors which retain their original colouring.

Bai Lisha, Project Manager at the Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center, explained.

"As far as exhibitions and their relative importance are concerned, you could say that this exhibition in the US is at the highest level. Because the warrior behind me still has visible coloring. His condition and colors are all completely original. This is the best we can offer. For most less important exhibitions they would not be allowed to show a piece like this."