Chinese Warriors Invade Old College

If you’ve had any classes in Old College over the last few days you may have noticed the giant 2.5 metre figures in five bright colours covering the grass in the middle of the Quadrangle.

Commemorating Chinese New Year in style

To celebrate Chinese New Year, the University of Edinburgh are displaying 90 life size replicas of the Terracotta Army in the Old College Quad. They light up between 4pm and 9pm every day until 7th February. This celebration signals the beginning of the year of the horse, so for all the 1990 babies, this is your time to shine.

The lanterns are  loads of different colours consisting of men, women, children and horses. They were designed for the 2003 Olympic Games in Beijing by artist Xia Nan.

Be one of many to add a selfie of you and one of the warriors to your instagram profile

Here comes the historical bit. The Terracotta Army was discovered in 1974. It was a piece of art buried with the first Emperor of China and it was believed that the army would protect the Emperor in his life after death. The real thing has over 8,000 soldiers with only a section of the site excavated. Few people have been permitted to walk through the excavation to observe the army up close, one of these lucky few was our own Queen Elizabeth II.