Chengdu’s Museums

Heading west along the Yangtze River you eventually come to the province of Sichuan and its capital Chengdu – a city that will never fail to please the intrepid traveller.

Displayed in one of China’s most dazzling archaeological site museums opened 2006 are the stupendous gold and jade objects unearthed at the Shu kingdom site of Jinsha. Set within a beautiful landscaped area is the Jinsha Archaeological Site Museum (2 Jinshayizhi Road; www.jinshasitemuseum.com) where more than 2,000 graves have been discovered along with sacrificial pits in which some of the finest objects have been uncovered. Three distinct phases have been identified here. Phase II, equivalent to the late Shang to mid Western Zhou, marks the high point of Jinsha Culture and when the finest jade, gold and bronze objects were produced. The craftsmanship of the thousands of jade artefacts excavated here is revealed in the vessels, chisels, daggers, axes and other objects.

The city also plays host to the Shu Brocade and Embroidery Museum (268 South Huanhua Road; www.cdbem.cn) illustrating one of China’s endangered ‘living skills’. As far back as the Warring States period, silk Shu brocade was traded along the Southern Silk Road through south-western China to India and Central Asia. During ancient times over 20,000 looms were weaving the highly prized, elaborately designed silk brocade; today there are twenty people at most capable of operating the looms. Here you can watch some of them in action. Working on replica looms modelled on ancient ones, two weavers move rhythmically together. To produce one centimetre of brocade it takes 160 shuttle movements, producing on average only seven cms of fabric a day depending on the design.

Adjacent to Chengdu’s splendid Huanhuaxi Park is a real jewel – the newly built Sichuan Provincial Museum (no.3, Section 4, Renmin South Road). It is the largest provincial museum in southwest China and displays a large proportion of its exceptional holdings in Ba and Shu Warring States period bronzes, weapons and ritual objects from the tomb at Xindu Majiaxiang, Han pottery figures and bricks, Shu brocade, Tibetan objects and an array of material culture from the fourteen ethnic minorities in Sichuan. The collection continues to grow exponentially as dozens of new sites are being discovered and excavated and the museum promises to up-date their exhibits periodically, enabling its massive collection to be seen in turns.

Those daring enough to take a trip southwards to the city of Zigong will be justly rewarded. Besides housing the China Lantern Museum (6 Gongyuan Road; www.lantern-museum.com), devoted to one of the cities major exports and which plays host to a famous annual lantern festival transforming the city into a riot of colour and light, Zigong is also known as the ‘dinosaur cemetery of China’. When the dinosaurs inhabited the area around Zigong, it was even more lush and fertile than it is today. Little wonder then that it has produced the world’s greatest concentration of Middle Jurassic (180-154 million years ago) dinosaur remains. The Zigong Dinosaur Museum (238 Dashanpu, Da’an; www.zdm.cn) is built on the dinosaur burial site of Dashanpu. This modern complex with excellent information panels will delight Jurassic Park fans of all ages. As well as the museum displays of full-size dinosaur skeletons there is an exposed section of the original excavated site with platforms allowing visitors to get onto the site itself.

Once you’ve been to Zigong, your appetite will be wetted for even more adventure. Besides heading out to see the pandas in the world famous Wolong National Nature Reserve you might also be inclined to visit Mr Fan Jianchuan’s private museum complex. Known as the Jianchuan Museum Cluster (Aren Township, Dayi County; www.jc-museum.cn), this is among the most impressive museum experiences you’ll ever have. Set around a lake are over a dozen museums with more in the making. Choose to go on foot or cruise the complex in a golf cart, but be warned: to see it all will take several days (guest houses and restaurants are on the premises). Built with his own fortune, the displays are designed as a personal expression of his desire for people to face their inhumanity to each other as exemplified in China during both the Cultural Revolution and the War against Japan. Additionally, there is a museum dedicated to the practice of bound feet – an example of man’s inhumanity to women for purposes of sexual exploitation (a practice which generally died out after the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911). Recently, just after the Sichuan earthquake, Fan opened the Wenchuan Earthquake Museum commemorating those who lost their lives in Sichuan’s tragic earthquake in 2008. On display are relics from the site of the earthquake that have been collected by Fan Jianchuan and others.

Sources of information on China’s museums

The most authorative source is CHINA: museums by Miriam Clifford, Cathy Giangrande and Antony White. It is a guide to 218 of China’s most fabulous museums and hidden gems. Each entry provides you with the name and the address of the museum in Chinese (essential to show the taxi driver where you want to go) as well as pinyin. Alongside these, the telephone, opening times and website are provided where they exist and are reliable. Available on Amazon (UK ISBN: 9781857595932 or US ISBN: 9789622178045), other on-line booksellers and in all good travel bookshops.

The website www.china-museums.com constantly updates the ever-changing museum scene in China and will shortly have some of the book’s content online and available to download onto mobile devices. The following publications provide information on museums, current exhibitions, opening times etc, however the information can be incorrect, so it is always best to ring: Time Out Beijing (www.timeout.com/cn/en/beijing/); the Beijinger (www.thebeijinger.com); City Weekend Shanghai (www.cityweekend.com.cn/shanghai/); That’s Shanghai (www.urbanatomy.com).

uides and magazines in English can be found at a number of bookshops catering for the English speaking community including: The Bookworm (www.chinabookworm.com) with branches in Beijing, Chengdu and Suzhou; Chaterhouse Booktrader (www.chaterhouse.com.cn) with branches in Beijing and Shanghai and Time Zone 8 bookshop (www.timezone8.com) in one of the contemporary complexes in Beijing known as 798.

By Cathy Giangrande & Miriam Clifford

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