Shaanxi History Museum, Xi'an

 

This is a phenomenal museum located in Xi'an, the seat of power for thirteen dynasties and an acknowledged site where Chinese civilization progressed.  It was built in 1983, not opened until 1991, and is the first large scale modern national museum in China (which is ironic, in that many innovations that humans have made in ancient civilizations were advanced by the Chinese first, they didn't have a good way to showcase that history until relatively recently.

The miraculous thing is that all of these things have been preserved over time, given the degree of purging of all that was old during the Cultural Revolution.  The museum is filled with hundreds of breath taking artifacts.  To give an example, the spectacular terracotta warriors on display are by no means the highlights, despite how special and wonderful they are.

The museum is free, but in order to visit one needs to get tickets, because the museum limits entry to 4,000 people a day.  That might sound like a lot of people, but the big take home message from my trip to China is that there are a lot of people in China that want to see their country and the treasures that it contains.  This is a must see stop in Xi'an, right after the terra cotta warriors.