
     Sanxingdui (Three-Star Piles) Museum

Sanxingdui, one of the most important ancient remains in the world for its vast size is located in the city of Guanghan, about 40km from Chengdu in Sichuan Province. Sanxingdui is also very popular for its enriched cultural contents which have been preserved for long periods of time.
Sanxingdui Museum is located in Northeast of Sanxingdu archeological site, west of the famous cultural city of Guanghan, on the bank of Jian River (commonly called Yazi River), 40 kilometers (about 24.9 miles) north of Chengdu City. Covering an exhibition area of 4,000 square meters (about 1544.4 square miles), and opened in October 1997 this is an archeological museum with excellent modern facilities. The cultural relics in the museum were mostly unearthed from the Sanxingdui site. In order to know about the museum we should know more about the Sanxingdui site.
Sanxingdui (Three Star Piles) refers to the three large mounds of earth at the site. Legend says that the Heavenly Emperor three down three handfuls of dirt, which became three mounds. Archaeologists have recently discovered that the three earth mounds at Sanxingdui are actually the southern walls of an ancient city that were built of rammed earth. Due to centuries of erosion, the wall was worn down to appear to be three mounds.
The Sanxingdui archaeological site was discovered by chance, when in the spring of 1929 a farmer, digging a ditch, discovered a piece of jade. In 1933 systematic excavations began and continued for more than fifty years. In early 1986 two large pits were unearthed, yielding more than one thousand bronze, gold, and jade artifacts. These discoveries stunned the world. The bronze artifacts found at the site were particularly interesting due to their high level of sophistication, and sheer size. The discovery of these ancient artifacts opens more questions about the ancient Shu Kingdoms than they answered. The bronzes found in the pits are either ceremonial, or religious objects. One of the most impressive artifacts is the statue of a man standing 2.62 meters in height, and weighting over 180 kilograms. His left hand is raised, his right arm is folded across his chest and was obviously holding something, but it is unknown what it was. His shape and pose have never been seen before. Bronze heads, and masks were also excavated at the site. It is unknown what they were used for, but their artistry is remarkable.
SanXing Dui Ancient City is the eldest and largest Shu ancient city found in China. In 1986, two enormous altars from the Shang dynasty, the top copper statue of the world—bronze human figures and a gold masks were found. SanXing Dui ancient city is a top attraction and is regarded as one of the biggest business cities of China.San Xingdui

The mysterious empire, with passed civilization，He stands by us, but, we can not approach him"long ago Can Cong and Yu Fu founded the kingdom of shu;'' Forty-eight thousand years went by, yet no road linked it with the land of Qin." Sanxingdui ?locates in seven kilometers west to Guanghan, a city which is twenty kilometers away from Chengdu, captical of Sichuan province. From the discovery of the first jade article in 1931, several decades have past during which generations of scholars endeavored hard to make further discoveries and scored great success. Up to now the explored area has reached twelve square kilometers with an ancient city area of three square kilometers. The discovery of the two large pits holding sacrificial offerings in 1986 is worth special mentioning. A large number of gold vessels, bronze wares, jade wares, stones, pottery, ivories and other artifacts have been unearthed; the gold stick 142cm in height, 500 grams in weight, the bronze head with face covered by gold,　the bronze standing statue 260cm in height, 180 kilograms in weight, the big bronze mask with a distance of 168cm between the two ears and eyeballs protruding a dozen centimeters, the 400 centimeters high bronze immortal tree, the "king of the jade tablet"  159cm in height , 23cm in width---- there are various kinds of bronze heads, bronze sculptures of animals and plants, and jade wares. Some of them are spiritualized; some of them have realistic style. The animal sculptures are vivid, so do the plant sculptures with their craftsmanship. They are primitive and crude; they are weird and mysterious. They make a perfect combination of appearance and spirit with the effects of shock and moving upon the viewers


In order to well preserve and display the cultural relics, the Sanxingdui Museum laid the foundation in 1992 and opened in October, 1997. The museum is divided into four sections, displayed more than 1000 pieces of cultural relics from Sanxingdui Relic and the two sacrificial pits of Shang Period, including gold plate, bronze ware, jade articles, pottery and ivory. Each of the four sections has its own theme.

Section 1 Splendor of Ancient Shu Culture.
The section is divided into five units. The first unit outlines the history of the ancient Shu and introduced the background of the ancient Shu. The next four units reflected skill, imagination and technical achievements of the Shu people through their handicraft techniques.

Section 2 Mystery of the Primitive Faith
The exhibition in this section focuses on one topic, human and divinity. It adopted the imitative real scene to show the mental world of Shu people.

Section 3 Exquisite Cultural Artifacts
More than 10 groups of cultural relics exhibited here are the soul treasures that symbolize the Shu people's ever lasting spirit.

Section 4 Sanxingdui: Excavation and Study
This section is a scientific display that introduced the impact of the Sanxingdui Relic overseas, the discovery and excavation of the site, the vital position of Sanxingdui Relic in academic study, to reflect all facets of Sanxingdui Relic.

For the swarms of tourists all year around, a new Exhibition Hall was opened on May Day in 2004, covering an exhibition area of 7,000 square meters. The exhibition in this hall is mainly a complex display of jade articles, gold plate and pottery, with the old Exhibition Hall specializing in bronze wares.

Sanxingdui Relic is the spiritual homeland of the ancient Shu people and the Sanxingdui Museum is the place for modern people to meet the ancient Shu.

Admission Fee: CNY 80
Hours: Ticket Hours: 8:30-17:00
Exibition Hours: 8:30-18:00
Bronze Exhibition Hall: 8:30-18:30
Guide Service: The museum provide English guide, CNY 120 every time.
Transportation: 1. Chengdu Xinnanmen (New South Gate) Bus Station has direct buses to Sanxingdui Museum at 08:30 and 15:00. 
2. Chengdu Chengbei Passenger Transport Center (Chengdu North Railway Statioin) has buses to Sanxingdui every 15 minutes. 
3. Get to Guanghan City first and then take city bus 6 to Sanxingdui.

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