Xianyang Museum mainly retains a large number of precious cultural relics of the Qin and Han Dynasties. Among the culture relics, about 3000 painted Terracotta Warriors of the Western Han Dynasty (206BC - 24AD) and tri-colored glazed potteries of the Tang Dynasty（618—907）are the most famous in China.
Things to Do
The Xianyang Museum is considered to be one of the most popular museums in the country. The museum features collections of the Han and Qin dynasty eras. Xianyang had been the capital of the Qin Empire.
Xianyang Museum occupies an area of 3855 square meters with ancient constructions. With magnificent buildings, it is a key museum to project cultural relics as well as one of the national AAA tourist attractions. Situated at Zhongshan Street in the Xianyang ancient city center, Xianyang Museum is one of the famous national medium-sized museums. It was the Xianyang Temple built in the early Ming Dynasty, and converted into Xianyang Museum in 1962.
Xianyang was one of the four famous ancient capitals in Chinese history. The Qin Dynasty was the first unified dynasty of ancient China. And Xianyang was the political, economic and cultural center of the Qin dynasty. Xianyang Museum is not only a place which the Qin kingdom set as the capital, but also a mainly relic with the Han mausoleum cluster. The museum is a regional comprehensive museum to mainly retain and study historical cultural relics of the Qin and Han Dynasties.
The museum had been rebuilt on a site of an ancient Confucian Temple from Ming Dynasty which had been originally built in 1347. The museum displays, researches and collects historical relics from the Han and Qin dynasties.
Xianyang City of Qin Dynasty
Xianyang City had been a popular ancient city and had been built in the year 350 BC. The first ever unified empire had been built by Emperor Ying Zheng in 221 BC in China. He named Xianyang as the capital of the Qin Dynasty. This city had been the center of culture, economy and politics.
The Qin Dynasty was ruined 15 years later and the grand imperial palace had been destroyed by fire. There are several handicrafts like silk, jade ware, bronze ware, pottery, tiles and bricks which had been excavated from the earlier site of the imperial palace of Xianyang.
Relics in Exhibition Halls
Xianyang Museum has 9 exhibition halls that showcase 10,000 relics like the halls showcasing historical relics that were excavated from the ancient Xianyang City, 3000 color painted terra cotta figurines, religious relics and Xianyang stone stele.
Historical Relics from Xianyang
The museum has 3 halls showcasing historical relics that depict the 140 year old history since the capital had been built in the Xianyang City. The first hall mainly introduces the background of the capital’s setting in the city.
It highlights the huge innovation of military power, economy and agriculture, unifying measures and weights and the other 6 kingdoms. The second exhibition hall is mainly for the achievements in architecture. The third exhibition hall displays the site of Xianyang palace, the site for handicraft workshop as well as handicrafts such as silk, jade ware, bronze ware and pottery.
Xianyang Museum is home to 50 relics of horse figures that had been excavated from the site of the ancient city. This showcase the strong relationship that ancient china’s agriculture, war and traffic had with horses. There are various kinds of horses here such as a horse with the body of a man, horses with horns and wings that embody the respect and apotheosis to horse.
3000 Color Painted Terra-cotta Figures
Throughout the northern Xianyang City, there are 9 tombs of emperors as well as hundreds of other tombs from the Han Dynasty. The museum also has 3000 color painted terra cotta figurines in the hall that had been excavated from the Cahngling Tomb’s accompanying tomb. It includes 583 figures riding on horses and 1965 soldier figures.
The 3000 color painted terra cotta figurines are the large scaled figures to be excavated earliest in the country. This founded the image of the imperial armed escorts as well as showcased the powerful military strength during the Han Dynasty. These figures can be found in exhibition halls 4 and 5.
The Xianyang Museum also has the largest sitting bronze Buddha statue in the Ming Dynasty as well as other religious relics. Other than that, the museum also has around 100 steles along with inscriptions.
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See more on China Travel: Terracotta Army
2 Day Entombed Warriors Exposed Tour is 219 USD per person. 1 Day Beijing & Xian Highlights Tour is 459 USD per person. And 4 Day Xian Historical Tour is 539 USD per person.
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