Shaanxi History Museum

Shaanxi History Museum, which located to the northwest of the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda in the ancient city Xi'an, in the Shaanxi province of China, is one of the first huge state museums with modern facilities in China. The museum houses over 300,000 items including murals, paintings, pottery, coins, as well as bronze, gold, and silver objects). The modern museum was built between 1983 and 2001 and its appearance recalls the architectural style of the Tang Dynasty.

History

Built as a last wish of former Primer Minister Zhou Enlai, Shaanxi History Museum was constructed from 1983. It was opened to the public on 20 June 1991. The museum is in an area of 65,000 square meters, with a building area of 55,600 square meters, cultural relics storerooms of 8,000 square meters, exhibition halls of 11,000 square meters, and a collection of 370,000 objects. The museum is architecturally in the Tang style, with a "hall in center, storied buildings in corners". It is elegant and dignified, on a large scale, with a combination of traditional architecture and modern technology, which embodies folk tradition and local features.

Shaanxi has been the imperial capital since ancient times, and more than 13 feudal dynasties built their capitals there in history including Zhou, Qin, Han, Tang. The province is rich in cultural relics. With the completion of the Shaanxi History Museum, it collected over 370,000 precious relics which were unearthed in Shaanxi Province. The bronze wares, pottery figures, and mural paintings in Tang tombs, etc., are all artistic treasures.

Since the opening of the museum, it has followed the policy of collecting, conservation, publicising, education, and scientific research, using its many historical relics, and conducted various types of display. The relics have also been exhibited overseas in cities in Japan, France, United States, United Kingdom, Germany and other countries and regions.

Collection highlights

Highlights of the museum include:

* Fossils of the Lantian Man (preceded Peking Man),
* The "Deer Pattern Eaves Tile" from the Qin Dynasty,
* "The Kneeling Archer", a 120cm tall figure unearthed in 1977 from Emperor Qin Shi Huang's tomb
* "The Four Footed Li", a Shang Dynasty bronze cooking utensil,
* "Playing Polo", a Tang Dynasty mural of people playing polo in China,
* "The Empress's Seal", a jade seal from the Western Han Dynasty, excavated near the tomb of Emperor Gao Zu, the first emperor of the Han Dynasty — one of the most important imperial seals ever found in China.

Location

The address of the museum is 91 East XiaoZhai Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China.

External links

* [http://www.sxhm.com/ Shaanxi History Museum website]
* [http://www.flickr.com/photos/noelinthebahamas/sets/72157604477943700/ Photography of the Shaanxi Museum]
* [http://www.chinamuseums.com/sx_history.htm Shanxi History Museum information]