[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

For Xia Yin, the conservationist, "time" is the key word because it represents a major contradiction in his life. "When you are separated by more than two millennia from something you try to understand almost every single minute of your waking hours, you feel both the flow and the stillness of time," the 41-year-old said.

"The small inroads we have made into this gigantic historical conundrum over the past 40 years serve as a constant reminder of how quickly the time has elapsed. On the other hand, when you are out there piecing together a once-towering soldier from many broken shards, you are insulated from your surroundings, unaware of the passage of time."