Flying Horse of Gansu

It was created in the Eastern Han dynasty about 25 - 220 AD and resides today in the Gansu Provincial Museum, and it is really breath taking to behold.
This outstanding bronze horse has become an iconic emblem of China, used in tourism ads.  Racing through the skies, it treads on a swallow (base of statue, completely out of proportion to the horse) that looks up in amazement. Unlike Pegasus, the Western flying horse, the wingless Han steed is meant to be understood metaphorically rather than literally; it represents an ideal horse that can gallop so fast that it seems to outrun the wind.  The sculpture is perfectly balanced on only one hoof, to complete the illusion of flight.
It was discovered in a three-chambered tomb which had apparently been entered by looters soon after the original burial some 2,000 years earlier. The looters had not, however, entered the chamber in which the bronzes were found. Archaeologists determined that the opulent tomb was that of a Han dynasty army general who had been given the important task of maintaining imperial frontier defenses on the all important Hexi Corridor of the fascinating Silk Road.