Rows of life-sized clay figures of soldiers stand at full attention at the Xi'an museum.

Terracotta cavalrymen on display at the Museum of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses in Xi'an, Shaanxi province.

I met my first knight in terracotta armor more than a year ago when I chanced upon an exhibition while strolling through downtown Taipei. It was easy enough to get into the exhibition. All I had to do was to line up for a couple of minutes for an entrance ticket and then I was immediately ushered into a small museum gallery teeming with visitors.

There displayed in a glass case within the darkened gallery stood the knight, or more accurately, the armored general. He was over 6 feet tall, broad-shouldered and rather handsome in a serious way. The terracotta statue was displayed among several other life-sized and life-like warriors, kneeling archers, cavalrymen and their horses, chariots complete with horses and drivers, in all their terracotta finery.

They were of course part of the world-renowned terracotta army of China's first emperor, made more than 2,000 years ago as funerary art and buried in earthen pits to accompany the great ruler as he entered the afterlife, only to see the light when discovered by farmers in Shaanxi province 34 years ago.

The exhibition in Taiwan was part of the roving exhibition of various choice pieces from the huge collection of the terracotta army in Xi'an making its way around the world. In the Taiwan museum, the warriors were shown in a simple and straightforward manner, each being exhibited in a lit glass case with a small explanatory text.

My next meeting with the handsome earthenware general was on another continent six months later when I happened to be in London during the largest exhibition outside China of The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army show at the grand old British Museum.

Getting into that exhibition proved to be more challenging than in Taipei, as tickets were quickly snapped up ahead of the six-month-long exhibition. I managed to get in through sheer luck, arriving early one wet Wednesday morning and queuing for one of only a few available tickets for the day.

On entering the hall, visitors were shown a short and lively film on the life and more importantly, the death, of the first Chinese Emperor Qinshihuang and the enormous pits housing his underground army in the ancient Chinese capital of Changan, now Xi'an.

This clever introduction set the stage for visitors to view the 20 clay warrior figures and bronze pieces, including a chariot and horse and swans, made to come brilliantly alive by elaborate stories told in vivid illustrations and color.

I learned that my terracotta general was among 8,000 clay warriors made by another army - 750,000 able-bodied laborers working in mass production assembly lines. They worked painstakingly to mould clay into life-size warrior torsos and limbs, fashioning different facial features and hairdos out of terracotta heads to give each warrior a different individual look and finally assembling them to life-sized models.

I left the London exhibition with a much deeper appreciation of the grand scale of the enterprise that produced the Qin emperor's funerary army.

Still you cannot beat the real thing, so on my birthday this April, I arrived at the home base of the terracotta army museum near Xi'an. Entry was made easy by my personal tour guide who took me to the start of the weekend queue as a "group of one".

Nothing quite prepared me for the breathtaking view of Pit No 1 as I entered the very site where the clay army has stood for the last two millennia. There in the cavernous 3.52-acre (1.4-hectare) pit as far as my eyes could see were row upon endless row of terracotta warriors and horses lined up in traditional battle formation to defend the tomb of Emperor Qinshihuang.

Each warrior stands at full attention, looking just as tall and brawny as the first terracotta warrior I glimpsed a year before, eyes at full alert in readiness for battle. Most of all, it is the sheer size and scale of this display of military might that took my breath away.

Pit No 1 is one of four massive pits built to house this great terracotta army, and while more than 1,000 warriors have been re-assembled as complete clay figures to stand guard within its stone corridors, it is still a work in progress as Chinese archaeologists continue to put together shards of the other 5,000 or so soldiers and horses unearthed in this huge area.

The other pits, though smaller, are no less impressive. Pit No 2 houses nearly 1,500 terracotta cavalrymen, horses, chariots and infantrymen and is another work in progress.

My favorite is the battle command post in Pit No 3. It contains 68 warriors, four horses and one chariot. At its heart is a stone platform where the army chief will survey the battlefield and lead his men to war.

Looking at the life-like terracotta generals positioned in the compact space surrounding the central platform, I could almost imagine them waiting for their commander-in-chief, the first Chinese Emperor, to take the platform and give them the final orders to attack.

Called the most important archaeological excavation of the 20th century, the Museum of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses has also thrown up an incredible array of bronze weapons numbering more than 10,000 manufactured to an amazing level of scientific sophistication apparently not known anywhere else in that time period of history.

The bronze swords, daggers, arrowheads, spearheads and axe heads were meant to be the indestructible weapons in the hands of the terracotta warriors accompanying the Emperor for all eternity.

Like the many tourists before me, I left the great terracotta army totally awestruck by the amazing legacy and bequests left behind by one of history's great historical figures. I am convinced that my terracotta general is better than the best ambassador China can send to make friends and influence people around the world.