Conformed to last wish of former Primer Minister Zhou Enlai, Shaanxi History Museum was built from 1983, and was finished on June 20th, 1991 and open to the public. The museum has an area of 65,000 square meters, building place 55,600 square meters, cultural relics storerooms of 8,000 square meters, exhibition halls of 11,000 square meters. The museum is an architecture of Tang style, "Hall in center, storied buildings in corners", elegant and dignified, magnificent scale, combination of traditional architecture and modern science, which completely embodied folk tradition, local feature, and epoch spirit.

　

Shaanxi is the imperial capital since ancient times, and more than 13 feudal dynasties built their capitals there in history including Zhou, Qin, Han, Tang. The province is rich in cultural relics. With the completion of Shaanxi History Museum, it collected over 375,600 precious relics which were unearthed in Shaanxi Province. The collection in the museum is noted for its large quantities, full categories and high grade. These all provide precious materials for scientific research systematically and completely. All these relics are mainly excavations. According to the materials, they can be divided into stoneware, bone ware, bronze ware, pottery warrior, pottery ware, Tang tri-colored pottery, jade article, copper mirror, brick tile, other building material, gold & silver ware, mural painting, royal seal, calligraphy & painting, paper money and others. Among them, the first class is 762 articles, the second class is 2,242 articles, and the third class is 4,205 articles. Time span of historical relics is over 1,000,000 years, from Lantian Apeman of 1,000,000 years ago to the Opium War of 1840. There are also large quantities of modern relics, folk relics. These all reflected lives of different ages and people of different classes from the degrees of culture, art, science and so on, and are the significant base for research of ancient history, art development, and scientific development of China.

 

The relics of Shaanxi History Museum are best characterized and representative in Shang & Zhou bronze wares, pottery warriors of past dynasties, Tang gold & silver wares, mural paintings in Tang tombs, which reflected the prosperity and development of Zhou, Qin, Han, Tang dynasties and are well-known all over the world.

 

 Exhibition Room 1:

This exhibition room displays the relics from the Prehistoric Era to the Qin Dynasty, including the stone ware used by Lantian Man, the pottery ware of the Yangshao culture in Neolithic Age, bronze ware of the Shang and Zhou dynasties and the weaponry and pottery figures of the Qin Dynasty.

 

The relics in this exhibition room are the brief summery of the civilization development of the Western Han Dynasty and the Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern dynasties in the Shaanxi province. The magnificent city site of the capital Chang’an, the papermaking technology and confrontation of the Northern and Southern powers are all presented here.

 

This exhibition room is divided into two parts: The Sui and Tang dynasties; The Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing dynasties. The magnificent capital city Chang’an, The brilliant gold and silver wares of the Tang dynasty, the gorgeous pottery figures of the Tang dynasty and the pottery figures and porcelains of the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties all revealed the important role of the Shaanxi province in the development of the ancient Chinese history.

 

The total area of the Subject Exhibition Hall, which is situated to the west of the Main Exhibition Hall, is about 2,500 square metres. It was used to show the monograph exhibitions. The exhibitions that have been held here include 'The Exhibition of the Shaanxi Bronze Treasures' and 'Exhibition of the pottery Selects of Shaanxi province in the past Dynasties', etc. At present 'Exhibition of the Rare Gems of the New Archaeological Discoveries in Shaanxi' is being exhibited. This hall presents visitors with the new advances in research into cultural relics and archaeological excavations in Shaanxi Province. The Museum is preparing to build the 'Tang Tomb Frescoes Exhibition Centre', with unique features embodying the protection, display and scientific research of the Tang Tomb Frescoes and showing a historical picture of Tang society.

 

Located to the east of the Main Exhibition Hall, the Eastern Exhibition Hall has a floor space of 2,500 square metres and several temporary exhibitions from China and other countries have been shown here. These include 'The Exhibition as Selected Cultural Relics from Zhaoling', 'The Exhibition of the Original Murals from the Tang Mausoleums', 'Exhibition of Cultural Relics from the Tomb of princess Chenguo of the State of Liao', 'The Exhibition of the Women's Dresses and personal Adornments of the Tang Dynasty', 'Gold and Silver Treasures of Tang', etc. The abundant content, distinctive design and useful information included here help to produce an influential display system at home and abroad.

 

With best display, excellent order, high quality service, elegant surrounding, and special charm, the museum attracted tourists home and abroad. After the opening, the museum accepted thousands of tourists and became the important window to propagandize Chinese excellent culture, carry out patriotism instruction, and international exchange.