Gansu Provincial Museum

Gansu Provincial Museum was built after the founding of the People of Republic China. Although it is young among the various museums in China, the collections in this place still can give visitors very deep impressions.

 

Gansu Provincial Museum covers more than 6.6 Hectares of land and has a total floor space of 18,000 square meters. Built in Russian architectural style, the museum is shaped like the letter "E". This is one of the best sights in the city. The museum has an excellent selection of exhibits relating to Gansu and the Silk Road. The collections include an extensive range of Neolithic pottery, dating back between 7,000-500BC.
 

The most famous piece in the collection of Han dynasty (206BC-220AD) bronzes is the Flying Horse of Wuwei, which is 14cm-tall horse, with its procession of chariots and horses behind, recently made a tour of the US and Canada. The exhibition of the Silk Road, containing many treasures including Neolithic painted pottery that was excavated from the town of Dadiwan, whose ancient civilization is believed to span back some 7,000 years. Other significant exhibits include early examples of calligraphy in ink and carved into wood. A one and a half meter high statue of a Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) warrior, made of a colored and then glazed earthenware. A gilded silver plate that portrays Bacchus, the Greek god of wine, that dates back some 2,000 years from the Eastern Roman Empire. There are also natural history exhibits including a skeleton of a mammoth, which is the 4m-tall Mammoth, whose remains were excavated from the Yellow River basin in 1973, is a fearsome sight.

 

Collections of Gansu Museum

Bronze Galloping Horse

The Bronze Galloping Horse is the most famous and important collection at the Gansu Provincial Museum. It is 34.5 centimeters tall, 45 centimeters long and 13.1 centimeters wide. It weighs 7.3 kilograms. The bronze horse is raising its head and neighing, which runs quickly. It is vigorous and delicate in shape.

 

Glass Lotus-Shaped Calix and Pad

The Glass Lotus-Shaped Calix and Pad is from Yuan Dynasty. It is exquisite lotus-shaped calix and pad which is made of blue glass. The diameter of the cup stand is 15.2 centimeters, and the cup stand is 1.2 centimeters tall. The calix is 4.9 centimeters tall with a diameter of 8.9 centimeters. The cup stand is beautiful in shape, rich-colored and with exquisite workmanship. It is the most complete set of glass calix and cup unearthed in Yuan Dynasty so far.

 

Exhibitions of Gansu Museum

Gansu Silk Road Civilization Exhibition
The exploitation and development of the Silk Road, the blending and collision of eastern and western cultures have left countless splendid historical, cultural and artistic treasures in Gansu, showing the glory of ancient civilization. The Gansu Silk Road Civilization Exhibition focuses on the exquisite cultural relics of Gansu section of the ancient Silk Road, including northern grassland cultural bronzes, bronze galloping horses and honor guards, silk products of Han and Tang dynasties, Buddhist statues, gold and silver vessels, Tangsancai(tricolored glazed pottery) of Tang Dynasty, blue and white porcelain of Yuan Dynasty and other cultural heritages.

 

Buddhist Art of Gansu
Buddhism was founded by Sakyamuni in ancient India in the 5th and 6th centuries BC. Buddhism, Islam and Christianity are called the three major religions in the world. In the process of communication, three major Buddhist systems, namely, Han Buddhism, Southern Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism, have gradually formed. Han Buddhism mainly refers to this Buddhism which was introduced into China via the Silk Road. It started in the Han Dynasty and finally merged into the long history of Chinese civilization and became an important part of Chinese culture.

Gansu is located in the eastern section of the ancient Silk Road, which is the gateway from the western regions to the China. As the only way which must be passed of the spreading of Buddhism from the western regions to the China mainland, the Buddhist art in Gansu blended with the traditional art in China, and then spread to the mainland. Therefore, in Gansu is rich in the Buddhist relics and related works, which play a very important role in the history of Buddhist development in China. There are more than 100 pieces(groups) of Buddhist cultural relics in Gansu Provincial Museum, spanning nearly 1700 years from the Sixteen Kingdoms period to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, showing the colorful Buddhist culture in Gansu in an all-round way.
 

Painted Pottery from Gansu
About ten thousand years ago, pottery was invented. With the maturity of pottery-making technology, the ancestors of the Weihe River Basin in China successfully produced the first batch of painted pottery around 8,000 years ago. Beautiful shapes, colorful colors and gorgeous patterns are integrated, which not only reflects the level of social productivity at that time, but also embodies people's spiritual world and expresses people's desire and pursuit of beauty.

Gansu is one of the origins of Chinese civilization. The surging Yellow River, the vigorous and fertile Loess Plateau and the Hexi Corridor stretching for thousands of miles gave birth to rich and developed Neolithic Age(New Stone Age) and Bronze Age cultures. These cultures have made immortal contributions to the birth and development of Chinese civilization. Most of them contain colorful painted pottery, which is a unique cultural tradition in Gansu for thousands of years. After more than 5,000 years of development, Gansu painted pottery is unparalleled in other regions in terms of quantity and variety, production level and artistic achievements. In the history of Chinese culture and art, Gansu painted pottery has written a wonderful and colorful chapter.
 

How to Get to Gansu Provincial Museum

Subway: Take Metro Line 1 and get off at the Xizhan Shizi Station, and get out off the station from Exit A, then walk about 500 meters to get to the Gansu Provincial Museum.