Exploring National Treasures in Shaanxi Museum (I)

Shaanxi History Museum, the first large-scale modern national museum in China, is one of the first 'AAAA' level tourist attractions and is known as the 'Pearl of the Ancient Capital, the Treasure House of China'. It is located at No. 91 Xiaozhai East Road, Yanta District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, northwest of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. It has more than 1.7 million (sets) of collections, among which, there are 762 (sets) of first-class cultural relics, 18 (sets) of national treasure-level cultural relics, 2 of which are the first batch of cultural relics prohibited from going abroad (territory) for exhibition, ranking among the top of Chinese museums. The exterior of the Shaanxi History Museum building deliberately highlights the splendor of the Tang Dynasty. Chang'an has been the capital of emperors since ancient times. In history, there have been 13 feudal dynasties such as Zhou, Qin, Han, Sui, and Tang. It has a wealth of above-ground and underground cultural relics, forming a unique historical and cultural landscape of Shaanxi. The predecessor of the Shaanxi History Museum was the 'Shaanxi Provincial History Museum' established in June of the 33rd year of the Republic of China (1944). It was renamed Shaanxi Provincial Museum in June 1955. In 1983, according to the instructions of Premier Zhou Enlai during his lifetime, the new museum began to be planned at the current site. Construction started in the summer of 1986, and it was officially completed and opened on June 20, 1991, and was named the current name. The museum covers an area of 65,000 square meters. The building area is 55,600 square meters, the cultural relics storage area is 8,000 square meters, and the exhibition hall area is 11,000 square meters. The museum's cultural relics range from simple stone tools used in the initial stage of ancient humans to various objects used in social life before 1840, spanning more than one million years. The cultural relics are not only numerous and varied, but also of high quality and wide value. It won the Architectural Creation Award of the Architectural Society of China and was recognized by UNESCO as a world-class museum. In 2008, the Shaanxi History Museum was rated as a national first-class museum. In 2009, it was designated as a national key museum jointly built by the central and local governments. In 2016, the Shaanxi History Museum was selected into the 'Chinese 20th Century Architectural Heritage' by the Chinese Society of Cultural Relics and the Architectural Society of China. In December 2017, it was selected into the first batch of national primary and secondary school students' research and practice education base list by the Ministry of Education.