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Address: Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, Urumchi, Xibei Road, #132

The exterior of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region Museum

The Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region Museum was established in the spring of 1953 in the People’s Park in Urumchi City. A new museum was later built in 1962 at a new site on Xibei Lu. The building occupies a space of 11,000 square meters and is built in a modern style enhanced by local architectural features. The central dome is thirty meters high and from its height one can view the entire city of Urumchi. The Silk Road derived its fame from silk.

The Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region Museum has also become famous for its rich collections of silk artifacts from many periods of history. Brocades from Eastern Han are highlighted, as well as all kinds of specialized silk-woven items from the height of the Tang. These are as lustrous and beautiful today as when they were new and display weaving techniques that were highly refined many hundreds and even thousands of years ago. These are regarded as unique treasures by textile authorities and art historians around the world. A number of the articles on display here are the earliest extant examples of certain weaving technologies in China.

The Xinjiang Autonomous Region has long been a crossroads for many different kinds of people. Their diversity of scripts and cultures is exhibited in this museum through archaeological material, including documents in some twelve different scripts with a particularly large number from the Han-dynasty finds at Turfan. The documents
cover military, economic, cultural, and political affairs. Clay or terracotta sculptures are also featured in the Xinjiang Museum. Among these are single-humped Central Asian camels, fat and vigorous Yuan-dynasty horses, women figurines in all postures, impressively fierce soldiers, and so on. These were sculpted in a most natural and vigorous way and have been preserved as a result of Xinjiang’s arid climate.

A Loulan female corpse of more than 4,000 years ago unearthed in the Silk Road

The Xinjiang Museum has several dozen original Tang-dynasty paintings. Although these are not from the hands of famous painters, they still exhibit the vital Tang spirit. They include such subjects as women playing weiqi go or Chinese chess, children frolicking, ‘eight steeds,’people dancing and so on. Other items in the collections include microliths, silver works of art, stone stelaes, coins and currency, ceramics,wooden articles. Of particular note are various foods from the Tang dynasty which, through the arid conditions, have been preserved over the passage of more than one thousand years.

The ‘Hu King’ brocade unearthed from Astana ancient tombs in Turpan

In a similar vein, certain dessicated human corpses,called mummies although they were not treated with chemicals, are kept in the Xinjiang Museum. Some of these date back to 4,000 years ago. They are the earliest known such examples in China and are important in the study not only of humankind but of ethnic composition in this region at the time. Also in the museum are an Eastern-Han couple, buried together and well preserved, and a corpse from the Tang dynasty with well preserved skin and hair.

Presently, the museum opened new exhibits called the Xinjiang History Exhibition and the Xinjiang People’s Customs Exhibition. The history exhibit shows the history of Xinjiang by using material from its rich collections and highlighting material from recent archaeological discoveries. The Customs exhibition introduces the customs and cultural lifestyles of twelve different ethnic groups in Xinjiang, including the Uighur, Kazakh,Mongolian, Kirgiz, Hui, Tajik, Uzbek, Russian, Tatar, Daur, Xibo, and Manchu.

The exterior of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Museum

Address: Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Hohhot City, Xinhua Dajie, #2

Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Museum was founded on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, in 1957. The building, expressive of local minority characteristics, is located at the intersection of Xinhua Dajie and Zhongshan Lu in the heart of Hohhot City, the capital of the utonomous region.

The Museum holds 44,000 objects relating to ethnic history in its collections. Among these quite a few are
rare treasures seldom seen in China, especially the artifacts relating to the northern tribes called Xiongnu,
Xianbei, Qidan, Mongolians and others.

There are also a large number of cultural relics relating to northern people’s living and customs. The Inner

The fossil skeleton of a mammoth displayed in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Museum.

An eagle-shaped gold crown of the Warring States period.

Mongolia Museum is a regional-level museum. One of the important sources of its collections are precious materials excavated from the earth as a result of archaeological research. These materials are one of the great specialties of the Museum.

This museum has also been active in collecting and preserving contemporary items that relate to the rich local culture. At present, there are more than 3,000 sets of such objects, which reflect the lifestyles and customs of a wide variety of Mongolian and other ethnic groups in the region. Among these, notable attractions include the costumes of Mongolian women from different parts of Inner Mongolia as well as Mongolian religious artifacts.

Inner Mongolia is also known as the ‘Land of Fossils.’ Specimens shown in the museum include massive dinosaurs, mastodons, and many other kinds of fossilized remains from the Mesozoic period that have attracted global attention.

Address: Beijing, Jingshan Front Street, #4 (Jingshan Qian Jie, #4)

The dragon throne in the Taihe Hall in the Forbidden City

The Palace Museum is situated in the center of Beijing, the capital city of China. It was stablished on October 10, 1925, and is China’s largest museum. The museum is also known as the ‘Purple’ Forbidden City in Chinese, or the Forbidden City as it is commonly known in nglish. It covers 720,000 square meters and was the imperial palace for a succession of twenty-four emperors and their dynasties during the Ming and Qing periods of Chinese history. The museum is also China’s largest and most complete architectural grouping of ancient halls. Construction was begun in 1420, the eighteenth year of Yongle, so that the site has existed for the past 580 years.

More than 70 halls of various sizes, containing more than 9,000 rooms, comprise the Forbidden City. These halls are aligned along a north-south axis, and extend out on either side in an east-west symmetry. The central axis not only passes through the Purple Forbidden City, but extends south to Yongding Gate and north to the Bell and Drum Towers, for a length of some eight kilometers. This passage through the entire city of Beijing symbolizes the centrality of the imperial power: the imperial seat is at the very center of this line. The architectural design lines up the buildings in neat array and with imposing scale. In a oncentrated form, this assemblage expresses China’s artistic traditions in the setting of China’s

The marble royal ramp of the Baohe Hall in the Forbidden City

unique architectural style.

Entering the Forbidden City from Tian’an Men, one first moves straight through the Duan Gate to arrive at Wu Men, or the great Wu Gate. The popular name for Wu Men is the Five Phoenix Tower; this is the front entrance to the Purple Forbidden City. Going through Wu Men, spread out before one is a broad courtyard with the twisting course of the Jinshui Creek (Gold Water Creek) passing from west to east like a jade belt. Five marble bridges have been constructed over this waterway. Passing through the Taihe Gate to the north of the bridges one reaches the core of the Purple Forbidden City, the famous three great halls called Taihe Hall, Zhonghe Hall, and Baohe Hall.
Taihe Hall is 28 meters high and occupies a space of around 2,380 square meters. It is the largest hall in the Palace. A red-lacquered dais around two meters high sits in its center, on which is placed a golden lacquered and carved dragon throne. Behind the throne is a screen carved with dragons and on either side of the dais are six great golden pillars with vigorous golden dragons coiling up them. In the recessed ceiling well above the throne is an extremely large coiled golden dragon, with a silvery pearl suspended from its mouth. The Taihe Hall was the location of the Emperor’s most important ceremonies, such as his own inauguration, his birthday, New Years, the arrival of winter, and so on. Behind the Taihe Hall lies the Zhonghe Hall. This is a square hall with four ridge poles along the roofline that unite at the top in a large, round, gilded topknot called a baoding. The profile of the building is extremely beautiful. When the Emperor was about to officiate at important ceremonies, he would first rest in this building and receive visits of his various Ministers. Behind the Zhonghe Hall is the Baohe Hall. In the Qing dynasty, every New Year’s Eve, the Emperor would hold a great banquet in this hall. This also was where the highest exam of the Ke-ju exam system was held.
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