The museum in this county is no less impressive than the provincial museums! Come and visit Qingzhou during the New Year!

Qingzhou Museum, although located in a county town, is a national first-class museum. Compared with the Shandong Museum in Jinan, it has more artifacts and the collections are more contemporary. I spent almost four hours in the museum and even had a meal there; the restaurant was quite good. Explanation: Upon entering, you can choose to rent an audio guide or hire a human guide. I rented an audio guide, but didn't find it very useful. Scanning a QR code with your phone to listen is just as good. If you have no background knowledge and are very interested in figurative art, I still recommend hiring a human guide. Tour sequence (in terms of excitement): 4F (Gilded and painted statues unearthed from Longxing Temple - the highlight of the museum, definitely worth a close look) 2F (Includes the examination paper of the top scholar and the 'Yi Zi Sun' jade wall) 1F (Stone steles and carvings) 3F (Calligraphy, paintings, and the Han tombs of Xiangshan, which include a version of the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival by Qiu Ying, definitely worth a close look, it's like watching a TV series) The three treasures of the museum: 1. The Ming Dynasty top scholar Zhao Bingzhong's palace examination paper Zhao Bingzhong's palace examination paper from the 26th year of the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty is unique in the country. The paper consists of nineteen folded pages, divided into two major parts. The first part is a resume of the author and his three ancestors, written in imitation Song typeface, with four lines. The first fold has the seal 'Seal of the Ministry of Rites' in seal script at the top. This part is sealed, with a watermark of 'Sealed for Protection' on the seal strip. The second part is the main text, consisting of fifteen folded pages, with a total of 2460 characters written in small regular script of the imperial library style. Following the main text are the official titles and names of nine examiners, including Grand Secretaries and Ministers of Rites, War, and Revenue. Zhao Bingzhong was careful with his ink in the palace examination, writing fluently and correctly without a single mistake. The most eye-catching part is the handwritten inscription by Emperor Wanli himself, indicating the top rank of the first class. It's unclear how this examination paper was leaked. What I enjoy most about visiting museums is looking at calligraphy and paintings. I find it magical that we can understand the words left by ancient people, as if having a conversation through time. 2. Eastern Han 'Yi Zi Sun' jade bi The 'Yi Zi Sun' jade bi was discovered in 1982 in Majiazhuangzi Village, Tanfang Town, Qingzhou City. Made of high-quality Hetian jade from Xinjiang, the jade is warm and the carving is exquisite. It is a typical bi with an outer contour, round at the bottom, decorated with bulrush patterns and 158 nipples inside, and chi dragon patterns outside. Above the contour, there is a relief of double dragons among auspicious clouds, with the seal script 'Yi Zi Sun' in the center, which is an auspicious phrase meaning 'may it benefit the family and descendants'. This jade bi is currently the only large Han Dynasty jade bi with Chinese characters in China's museum collections. 3. Buddhist statues from Longxing Temple In October 1996, more than 400 statues were unearthed from the buried treasure of the Longxing Temple site in Qingzhou. Due to the large number, variety, well-preserved gilding and painting, exquisite carving, and long span of time, they were rated as 'One of the Top Ten New Archaeological Discoveries in China in 1996' and 'One of the Hundred Major Archaeological Discoveries of the 20th Century in China'. Among them, the 'Qingzhou Smile' is also known as the 'Mona Lisa smile of China'. The downside of the museum is that there are very few resting chairs, and not many cultural and creative products. Qingzhou Museum