Shaanxi History Museum

The Shaanxi History Museum is one of the most important and impressive museums in China and known worldwide for its amazing collection of Chinese historical relics. Located on Yan Ta Road in southern Xi'an city, it was built between 1983 and 1991. The traditional Tang Dynasty architecture, in which the modern building was designed, makes its image easy to recognise among museums. With its buildings covering an area of 55,600 square meters, it is a large complex and it needs to be, for within its walls it holds 370,000 pieces of priceless Chinese history.

Shaanxi has held the capital of 13 Dynasties starting over 2000 years ago so it is no wonder the province holds such a wealth of history that needs to be protected and displayed to the world. Both temperature and lighting control help to preserve the artefacts.

It is divided into three sections, the Permanent, Temporary and Special exhibition halls. The Permanent Hall is the largest and holds items from all ages to show a historic time-line for Shaanxi. Three rooms hold seven sections here, which are, Prehistoric, Zhou, Qin, Han, Wei-Jin-North and South dynasties, Sui-Tang, and Song-Yuan-Ming-Qing dynasties. A few examples among the thousands include neolithic ceramics, Zhou bronzes and Tang gold and silver items as well as many archaeological records and photos of their discoveries.

The Temporary Hall holds home and foreign exhibitions, the most famous being the Tang Dynasty tomb wall murals. The Special Exhibition Hall is dedicated to displays from Shaanxi's local culture, such as the Shaanxi bronzes display, the Silk Road display and the Yaozhou Porcelain display.

Anyone with an interest in Chinese history must visit here to see a glimpse of it all in one place.