A Visit to the Museum

Over this past weekend I finally managed to coerce Andrew into taking me to the museum.  As you may recall, Andrew was the one who took us on a tour of the Banpo Village.  Being that he has a masters degree in Archaeology he is very knowledgeable in this area and is very useful to have around when viewing ancient … well, ancient stuff.  Me?  Unless the subject has something to do with Calculus or Physics, I’m pretty much useless.

So Andrew volunteers at the Shaanxi History Museum; he gives tours twice a week for tour hours at a time.  He can get any of us in without tickets and past all the lines.  Oh hell yes.  You see, the museum is free to the public.  However, they only give out a certain number of tickets per day to prevent a mass flood of people.  On the upside, there is never a horde of people overcrowding the entire place.  On the down side, it is possible that you could show up and not be allowed admission.  Bummer.  Good thing for us we have a man on the inside, eh?  Apparently tickets are issued once in the morning and once in the afternoon.  I’m not sure what the exact times are but if you wish to go-which I highly recommend doing if you are visiting Xi’an-then find out what the times are and show up early.

Just a small part of the 55,600 square meter museum

The museum is just a short distance northwest of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda.  The pagoda is a must see destination while in Xi’an, and since the museum is within walking distance you should definitely add this on to the tail end of your big pagoda viewing itinerary.  Plus, it’s free.  Really, can you beat a price like that?

Christa is in awe of Andrew in tour guide mode

As I’m sure you can imagine the museum has lots of old stuff.  Like, lots and lots of old stuff.  Stuff dating back all the way through the Shang Dynasty.  It is really a very impressive collection.  Also, if for some reason you don’t have the time to make the day trip out to the Terracotta Soldiers (and shame on you for not making time!) then you can view a small collection of the soldiers in the museum.  There was a huge variety of relics from all different periods, from early jade tools to some of the first bronze works to tri-color-glazed art and beyond.  Like I said, an impressive collection that should definitely be viewed by anyone in Xi’an.  According to Andrew, who I would take as a reasonable authority on such subjects, the Shaanxi History Museum is the second best museum in all of China (second only to the Shanghai Museum).  So there you have it, straight from the horse’s mouth.

And just for my own sense of self-edification, here is my favorite piece from the museum.  I hope you like it too:

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