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Chengdu Tour of
Sanxingdui Museum
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Sanxingdui Museum is located in Northeast of Sanxingdu
archeological site, west of the famous cultural city of Guanghan, on
the bank of Jian River (commonly called Yazi River), 40 kilometers
(about 24.9 miles) north of Chengdu City. Covering an exhibition
area of 4,000 square meters (about 1544.4 square miles), and opened
in October 1997 this is an archeological museum with excellent
modern facilities. The cultural relics in the museum were mostly
unearthed from the Sanxingdui site. In order to know about the
museum we should know more about the Sanxingdui site.
Sanxingdui is a cultural relic of the ancient Shu (Sichuan). It is
an important archeological discovery which changed the people's
understanding of ancient history and culture. If you want to visit a
place to know more about Chinese Shu (Sichuan) culture, make it this
one, for the civilization shown by the cultural relics can be called
a true wonder.
The pictures exhibited in the museumSanxingdui refers to three earth
mounds at the site. Hence the site found here is called Sanxingdui
Relic. The Relic area stretches for about 12 square kilometers
(about 4.6 square miles), which is the largest, oldest, and most
connotational Shu cultural relic in Sichuan. It is said that the
Heavenly Emperor cast down three handfuls of earth which fell near
the Jian River and became three earth mounds on Chengdu Plain. The
three earth piles, described as three golden stars in a line, hence
became known as Sanxingdui (three-star piles). Now affirmed by
modern archaeology, the three earth mounds of the Sanxingdui Relic
are in reality the southern wall of an ancient city that was built
of earth. There are two breaches in the city wall, after the
collapse and subsequent erosion; it became the three mounds we see
today.
The discovery of the Sanxingdui Relic was a lucky chance. In the
spring of 1929, a peasant found a piece of bright-colored jade
whilst he was digging ditch. That was the catalyst to the discovery
of a mysterious ancient kingdom; subsequently, more than 400 jade
items were excavated. Later, from 1933, systematic excavations and
archeological work of Sanxingdui Relic continued for half a century.
The evidence of the excavation shows the development from late
Neolithic Age (7000 BC-5000 BC) through to the late Shang (16th -
11th century BC) and early Zhou Period (11th century BC - 711 BC).A
statue in the museumSanxingdui Relic, with more than 3,000-year
history might even be the capital of ancient Shu. And this discovery
uncovered the veiling of Shu and padded the blankness of bronze
culture in Chinese archaeological history. In the following decades,
several generations of archaeologists worked in succession on the
Sanxingdui site and achieved a lot, especially the two sacrificial
pits found in 1986. With more than 1000 cultural relics unearthed,
including a 142-centimeter (about 55.9 inches) long and 500-gram
(about 31 drams) golden staff, a golden veiled head portrait, a
260-centimeter (about 102.4 inches) tall and 180-kilogram (about
396.8 pounds) bronze figure, also a big bronze mask with more than
10 centimeters (about 3.9 inches) bulging pupils and two ears spaced
at 168 centimeters (about 66.1 inches) and a big Yuzhang (a kind of
jade adornment of the leader of a tribe, the symbol of power). Some
cultural relics are apotheosized and mysterious, some are realistic,
and some primitive simplicity but all of them are very impressive,
which aroused worldwide attention.
The discovery of Sanxingdui Relic is heart-stirring but some
cultural relics remain enigmatic. According to experts, Sanxingdui
Relic is the centuries-old center of the ancient Shu on Chengdu
Plain. Traditionally, archaeology considered Shu as a closed area
and without communications to the Central Plain (the most developed
region in ancient China), but the cultural relics unearthed here
have affirmed ancient Shu is no less developed than the Central
Plain and it is even the most representative cradle of Chinese
civilization in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. So
Sanxingdui Relic is a significant means to comprehend the
development of history and culture in Sichuan, and even the
southwest area of China as a whole, but Sanxingdui is still
enigmatic. The ancient Shu characters are one of the two or three
unbroken characters. Some cultural relics can not be named as the
archaeologists have never seen their ilk before, which also add some
mysterious color to Sanxingdui.
In order to well preserve and display the cultural relics, the
Sanxingdui Museum laid the foundation in 1992 and opened in October,
1997. The museum is divided into four sections, displayed more than
1000 pieces of cultural relics from Sanxingdui Relic and the two
sacrificial pits of Shang Period, including gold plate, bronze ware,
jade articles, pottery and ivory. Each of the four sections has its
own theme.
Section 1 Splendor of Ancient Shu Culture:
The section is divided into five units. The first unit outlines the
history of the ancient Shu and introduced the background of the
ancient Shu. The next four units reflected skill, imagination and
technical achievements of the Shu people through their handicraft
techniques.
Section 2 Mystery of the Primitive Faith:
The exhibition in this section focuses on one topic, human and
divinity. It adopted the imitative real scene to show the mental
world of Shu people.
Section 3 Exquisite Cultural Artifacts:
More than 10 groups of cultural relics exhibited here are the soul
treasures that symbolize the Shu people's ever lasting spirit.
Section 4 Sanxingdui: Excavation and Study:
This section is a scientific display that introduced the impact of
the Sanxingdui Relic overseas, the discovery and excavation of the
site, the vital position of Sanxingdui Relic in academic study, to
reflect all facets of Sanxingdui Relic.
For the swarms of tourists all year around, a new Exhibition Hall
was opened on May Day in 2004, covering an exhibition area of 7,000
square meters. The exhibition in this hall is mainly a complex
display of jade articles, gold plate and pottery, with the old
Exhibition Hall specializing in bronze wares.
Sanxingdui Relic is the spiritual homeland of the ancient Shu people
and the Sanxingdui Museum is the place for contemporary people to
meet the ancient Shu.
Tour Chengdu
with Great Wall Adventure Club, the best
Chengdu
tour agent to help
you with your hotel booking and transfers.
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