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| Museums tips and photos posted by real travelers and Xi'an locals. • 37 Photos
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 | Xi'an Museums Reviews | 1 - 10 of 22 |  |
Without a doubt, the Shanxi History Museum is the best museum in China, with a collection of more than 370,000 exhibits, though none of us can see all of its exhibits. The complex was built in the Tang dynasty style architecture; the exhibits cover a time period from the Stone Age-1.7 million years ago to the 20 century.
I have visited it no less than 4 times. Every time I was attracted by those items related to the civilization, art and culture. There are so many exhibits that it would take forever to see and learn about all of them. I'm sure that you will enjoy the national treasures and the ancient wisdom during the visit. Look at the pics of my tip, and then discover these treasures.
Tang frescoes made 1300 years ago are shown in Shanxi History Museum. They are beautiful, but they are displayed only on Mon, Wed and Fri, and there is a extra charge of 150 or 200 yuan. Maybe it will change.
The museum is open from 8:00 to 17:00. The entrance fee is 35 yuan. It is as great as the Terrocotta Army, so please put it into the list of must-see attractions in Xi'an. Address: No 91, Xiaozhai East Road, Xi'anPhone: 029-85253806Directions: Head east from Cross of Xiaozhai
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The Forest of Stelae Museum collects above 1000 stone tablets, along with other artifacts. The history of the museum is nearly 1000 years. Some exhibits are classified as national treasures.
One one hand, the museum is a library about the Chinese civilization and history, which is called "documented on the stone". One the other hand, it's the museum of calligraphy and sculpture made of stones. Address: No. 15 Sanxuejie StreetDirections: Cross Shuyuanmen
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There is a 570m long street that was revamped in 1990 and 1991 to recapture the ancient Ming and Qing-style store fronts (much of the funds came from the residents themselves).
The result is a short walk down a market street with much of the storefronts, roofs, signs, and everything giving you a feel of the ancient days.
Halfway down the street is the ancient Guanzhong Academy.
At the end of the street is the Forest of Stones Museum. It has an impressive collection of stone manuscripts, tombstones and documents dating back over nearly 2000 years. The ancient "library" was founded in 1087, but now has some collections from the Han dynasties of 2nd century B.C.
To follow up my note on the Pagodas, there is a large display of the ancient horse stakes here. Amazing craftsmanship and awe of the past... Directions: Located parallel to the south wall, just east of the city's South Gate
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The Shaanxi History Museum is one of the two must-see sights in Xi'an (the other being the Terra Cotta Warriors). It is a modern museum that was built to house relics from the area's history, focusing on the area's prehistory and the the various dynasties up through the Tang Dynasty, when Xi'an, then called Changan, was the capital of China and one of the world's largest and most powerful cities. The exhibits features pottery, bronze pieces, coins, and sculptures from the varios periods arranged in dynastic order. Additional information about each of the time periods is provided by short films as you enter each area.
One thing that you must know before visiting the museum is that they limit the number of visitors each day, so people line up before it opens to get a ticket. We got there at 10AM and the line was down the block. Fortunately for us, there was a separate and much shorter line for senior citizens, disabled persons and families with children, so Anna (our 7-year old) saved the day (and about 2 hours). One other quirk about the museum's ticket system is that foreigners must show their passports to get a ticket (1 ticket per passport). We heard that they sometimes make exceptions to the ticket limit for tourists that can show an airline ticket proving that they are flying out that day and won't get another chance to see the museum, but we can't verify it. Leave a Comment
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The Xi'An museum is absolutely amazing.
It tells the story of the area since stone age to the japanese invasion in the thirties las century. I have not many pics of this museum, just this one of a large lion guarding the main hall. Go to visit it if you have time Leave a Comment
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The Shaanxi History Museum is a spectacular building with an excellent collection. It's a pity that the authorities didn't find some money in the US$174 million investment to produce decent guidebooks to help guide tourists through the museum: there are some guidebooks - they aren't much good - but you have to hunt them down. The museum itself was very much the vision of the late Zhou Enlai apparently, but misses its potential. While it has a superb collection, the poor labelling and preponderance of cheap souvenir stands scattered around the building shows that the structure may be new, but no-one has learnt from the excellent museums in Shanghai and Nanjing how to meet the needs of visitors.
The building uses Tang Dynasty design features and architectural details, and inside there are 113,000 historical artefacts - few of them on display. Sadly, the opportunity is missed to provide a genuinely educational display of the history of Shaanxi, instead using poorly lit glass cabinets crammed with poorly labelled objects and no context.
The first room of the museum starts with the Prehistory of the area, and some models of the Lantian man finds, but after the good start, it all tumbles downhill into a lengthy succession of "Jar, Tang Dynasty", "Bowl, Tang Dynasty", which rapidly becomes tedious. If you can find the "Handbook for Xi'an" (ISBN 7541813311) there is eighteen pages of rather bizarre museum monologue; 'bizarre' because it describes the historical setting for each room, like a small history of China, but without mentioning many of the artefacts. As an example, for part of the section on the Song Dynasty, the book states "On display here are pots, jars, trays of ten utensils, boxes, and bowls, and so on". Leave a Comment Address: Xiaozhai DongluDirections: Southern part of the city. It is not the Shaanxi Provincial Museum.
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(continued from Part 2)
The Shaanxi Provincial History Museum, for all the US$174 million investment, is a real disappointment almost entirely because no-one ever gave a moment's thought to educating or even entertaining visitors. It provides virtually no information to the Chinese visitor, let alone the foreign one, and the opportunities for developing viable commercial opportunities is missed entirely. Capping it all are unhelpful, bored, ignorant staff at every turn who have no desire to help, educate or play any part in the visitor experience other than drink tea. Leave a Comment Address: Xiaozhai Donglu 90Directions: In the southern part of the city. It is not the Shaanxi Provincial Museum.
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(continued from Part 1)
In the absence of useful official guidance, the following may be helpful:
Early Zhou oracle bones, from the bone of an ox. By drilling holes in the bone, and in tortoise shells, then setting fire to string tied through the hole, the diviners would interpret the resulting cracks in the bone. They would decide whether it was good or bad to do certain things. The results were then inscribed in the bone or tortoise shell, so becoming some of the earliest examples of writing in the world.
Zhou bronzes: plenty of them, but few spectacular examples, although several have beautiful inscriptions.
Zhou shell currency
Early Qin coins
Samples from the Terracotta Warriors from Qin Shihuang's mausoleum
Han ceramic drainage pipes, showing the level of advancement of early Chang'an
Han 'caltrap' anti-cavalry weapons - ingenious but nasty four-spiked objects that would always have one spike facing upwards, so extremely effective against horses.
Northern Wei armour - among the earliest in China
Tang tri-colour (brown, yellow and green) pottery used in tombs: this type of pottery is incredibly rare.
Tang bronze mirrors, which were particularly favoured by Emperor Xuanzong, who gave them as gifts to his officials on his birthday.
The Hejia treasures, of gold and silver bowls and plates, discovered as part of a huge treasure trove in the village of Hejia in 1970
The Famensi treasures discovered at the Famen temple, near Baoji: gold and silver utensils, plates and bowls.
Song bronze chess pieces
A Song brick, engraved with a local folk dance, still performed today in the north of the province
Song figurines of Sumo wrestlers, which originated in China, but is no longer practiced here.
Yuan magic plate, which has numerals engraved on it. The sum of any of the six numbers read vertically, horizontally or diagonally comes to 111. Plates such as these were placed under palaces to protect them from evil spirits.
Ming census books
(continued in Part 3) Leave a Comment Address: Xiaozhai Donglu 90Directions: Southern party of the city. This is not the Shaanxi Provincial Museum!
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The building itself is modelled on Tang Dynasty style pavilions and covers two floors and contains exhibits of artefacts from tombs related to pre-history, Tang and Qing Dynasty. Most of the artefacts are cultural, archaeological, some pottery, mirrors and some weapons. Unfortunately, we found the displays a little disappointing as few of the exhibits were put into their historical context with only a vague reference to burial mounds.
You cannot take baggage into the museum (there is a storage facility), photography OK but no flash allowed.
I have included a scanned copy of the card with the Chinese characters for the museum given to us by the hotel.
Cost of entry 35 Yuan each.
Open every day. Summer 8.00am to 17.30pm. Winter 9.00am -16.30pm. Address: 91 Xiaozhai Lu, East, Xi’an,710061, ShaanxiPhone: Tel: 0086-29-8525-3806Directions: The museum did seem a little out of the way for us to walk. We took a taxi Cost: 15 Yuan Buses 5,26,24,701,710,27,30,34,400,401,521Website: http://www.sxhm.com
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The Shanxi History Museum is one of the most important and best presented museums in China. For those who are well traveled in China, this might not be saying that much. China is not a great country for quality museums. Warehouses full of pots and only competently displayed. The Shanxi History Museum is well lit and superbly displayed. It also has a rich collection of artifacts. Shanxi is in many ways the cradle of Chinese civilization so rightly a museum depicting the province importance should be well worth visiting.
The exhibits are displayed chronologically stretching backing to pre-history into the Shang Dynasty. There are many exhibits of bronze weaponry which date from Zhou and Qin Dynasties.of Qin Shi Huang. There are also some of the Terracotta Warriors here and a fine chariot and horses also found from the nearby tomb As China progressed into the Tang Dynasty, artisitic concerns became more important and here we see many beautifull carvings and frescos dating from this area.
The museum has some annoying features. One is the very aggressive sales people attempting to get you to go into their souvenior shops to see real "Chinese art". Another is all the English students hanging out in the lobby attempt to speak English to you and to fill out their forms. This tends to get tiresome after a while.
The admission into the Shanxi History Museum is Y35. Leave a Comment Address: Xiao Zhai Dong Lu 91Phone: 029/525-4727Directions: The Shanxi History Museum is about 3km south of the walled town.Website: www.sxhm.com
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