Old silk road friends

Visitors take a look at the Colors of Dunhuang exhibition, part of the Year of Chinese Culture in Turkey, at Tophane Armory of the Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul. Provided to China Daily

China Tea Expo 2012

Topkapi Palace is one of the city's most famous landmarks. Strategically situated on a promontory jutting into Marmara Sea, it is reached by walking past storied mosques, an Egyptian column, annoying carpet merchants and what used to be a Roman Hippodrome.

Topkapi's Treasury contains a collection of some of the best Chinese porcelain outside of China, as well as priceless items such as the Prophet Muhammad's sword and cape.

A cobblestone path leads to the Treasures of China exhibition, housed in the Has Ayilar, where visitors will be able to see for themselves four of the first emperor of China Qin Shihuang's Terracotta Warriors, plus a horse, the latter of which has never been shown outside China.

It is so lifelike that it is easy to imagine it going for a gallop, nostrils flaring.