Kneeling Archer

State Visits often incorporate tours of sites with particular historic or political significance for the host country. In 1986, Queen Elizabeth II became the first reigning British monarch to visit China when she made a State Visit there with Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The itinerary included a stop at the Great Wall of China and a State Banquet, at which she wore a pink silk evening dress embroidered with sprays of Tree Peony blossoms, the national flower of China. During the queen’s visit to Xian, she saw thousands of the 'terracotta warriors', which had been buried with China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang Di, in the third century AD. As a token of the visit, Queen Elizabeth II was presented with this replica terracotta statue of a kneeling archer.