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Shaanxi Provincial History Museum
If you love Chinese history, Shaanxi Provincial Museum is a must on your Xian trip. It is one of the four largest museums in China ( the other three are Forbidden City Museum, Shanghai Museum and Henan Provincial Museum. You need to reserve your ticket though it is free of charge. It is situated 1km away, northwest of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. It is a giant architectural complex in the Tang-dynasty style. It occupies an area of 70,000 square metres, and the construction area being more than 50,000 square metres. It focuses on the highlights of the Shaanxi culture and depicts the development of the Chinese civilization.
Exhibited in the main exhibition hall are over 2,700 works of art. The exhibition space is dcut into such halls as an introductory hall, permanent exhibition hall, special exhibition hall, and temporary exhibition hall, as well as one that has been called the National Painting Hall.
The Museum's permanent exhibition mainly show Shaanxi's ancient history. Representative relics and ancient pieces from all periods have been chosen to depict the development of civilization in this area. The exhibition space of this hall is over 4,600 square meters. It covers the three exhibition rooms,which are cutinto seven parts ( Prehistory, Zhou, Qin, Han, Wei-Jin-North and South dynasties, Sui-Tang, and Song-Yuan-Ming-Qing). All of this is mixed by models of archaeological sites, and drawings, and photographs.
These works systematically show the anient history of Shaanxi from 150,000 years ago to the year 1840. Because Xian were once the several their capitals on Shaanxi territory, such as Zhou, Qin, Western Han, Sui and Tang, the exhibits have stress on these periods and these places. This not only show the span of culture in ancient Shaanxi, it also show the highest level of cultural development of China's social economy.
The temporary exhibits hall on the east side of the museum, has various exhibitions covering Tang-tomb wall paintings. Shaanxi's wall murals of this kind takes the first placw in the whole country. They are rich in concept and line, they have rich details. They both show Tang customs and are superb works of art.
The Shaanxi History Museum totally keeps over 115,000 objects in its collections. Some of the most representative are bronzes, Tang-dynasty tomb wall paintings, terracotta statuary, ceramics, construction materials through the successive dynasties, Han and Tang bronze mirrors, and coins and currency, calligraphy, rubbings, scrolls and so on.
Entrance Ticket: Free
Opening Hours: Tuesday-Sunday:
9:00 to 17:30 (Nov.15 to Mar.15)
8:30 to 18:00 (Mar.16 to Nov.14)
Closed on Mondays
Bus Lines: Get off at Guihua Road Bus Station by taking bus 5, 19, 24, 26, 27, Tourist Bus No.6, and No. 8. Add: Yangta Road, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province
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