DERRY — Since 2004, students from Pinkerton Academy have traveled to China as part of a cultural exchange, and students from China travel to New Hampshire in return.

This fall, students and visitors to Pinkerton Academy’s Stockbridge Theatre will have a vivid reminder of the cultural exchange between the high school and its sister school of Tanggu #1 in the port city of Tianjin.

At the entrance of the theater now stand authentic replicas of the famed terra cotta warriors that guarded the underground tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. The original sculptures, nearly 10,000 strong, were buried to guard the emperor around 210 B.C.

The statues on display at the Stockbridge Theater were gifts from the three Global Geography teachers at Pinkerton Academy who have organized the cultural exchange between the school and China.

“We’ve always thought this was a really important program, and we like the idea of having something visual related to our sister schools,” said teacher Tom Weatherby. “John (Barry) came up with the idea of the terra cotta warriors and we decided to go for it.”

When the students and teachers were in China in April, the teachers went to the Chinese factory authorized to make authentic replicas of the warriors and ordered them for Pinkerton. The statues arrived in Boston in late July.

“We went down to Boston in a U-Haul to bring them back up here,” said Weatherby.

Teacher Joe Lee said he hopes having the statues on display resonates beyond the students who take part in the exchange program with China.

“We are all believers that U.S. students are naive when it comes to the international world,” Lee said.

Those students who do take part in the cultural exchange get to see the world and the United States through fresh eyes.

Weatherby said the exchanges are kept to small groups of students, with the students at Pinkerton earning credit by taking part in a China studies class that runs from October through the two-week trip to China in April.

In China, each student stays with a different host family. One week of the trip is spent taking classes in the sister school, while the second week is spent on a cultural tour of the country.

The same system is used when the Chinese students come to New Hampshire in September. The students stay with a host family, spend a week in classes at Pinkerton, and then visit Boston, New York City and Washington before departing from Washington at the end of the second week.

With China emerging as the next great global superpower, Barry said the exchange allows the American students a chance to see what a growing economy is like.

He said many Americans are surprised to learn that while many imported items are made in China, the companies that make those goods are actually from outside countries.

“China is an easy target to blame for the problems we have here,” Barry said. “But not all that people hear or read is the way it is. We’re trying to get the kids to think globally.”

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Adam Swift may be reached at aswift@newstote.com.