Tang West Market Museum in Xian

Tang West Market Museum in Xian

Tang West Market Museum Facts

In the north of the market, there is the Tang West Market Museum, focusing on the Silk Road culture. With an area of 3.5 hectares (9 acres), the museum stores more than 20,000 relics from Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC) to Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Exquisite bronzes, colorful ceramics, various terra figures, bright gold and silver wares and gorgeous silks are shown in the museum.

Chinese Name: 大唐西市博物馆

Type: Culture & Museums

Address: No.118 Lao Dong Road, Lian Hu district, Xi’an municipal, Shaanxi Province

Best Seasons: All year around

Recommended Visiting Hours: about 1-2 hours

Opening Hours:  9:00-17:00, closed on Monday, and holidays will be open as usual.

Ticket: Floor 1 to 3: free
Floor 4: CNY 30

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Why Visit Tang West Market Museum?

  1. The Tang West Market is the national sole international business and tourism culture industry project with the subject of Great Tang Culture and Silk Road Culture rebuilt in the former place of west market of Tang Chang’an City, which is the National Cultural Industry Demonstration Base, National AAAA Tourism Attraction and Productive Protection Demonstration Base of National Intangible Cultural Heritage.
  2.  It integrates the functions like tourism, shopping, relics and museology, relaxation, entertainment, catering, business, hotel, exhibition, performance & art into one body. Also, as the starting point of the Silk Road, the West Market witnessed the glorious business trade between China and other countries in its heyday.
  3. Tang West Market Museum is the first civilian on-site museum in China, established on the site of the West market of the Tang chang’an city.

Brief Introduction 

Tang West Market

3 km (1.9 miles) to the west of Bell Tower in Xi’an, Tang West Market was built at the original site of the west market in Chang’an city of Tang Dynasty (618-907). It is a modern international shopping zone representing the splendor of Tang Dynasty and the Silk Road culture. There were two main markets in the city in the Tang Dynasty, the East Market and the West Market. The East Market was for domestic trade among the upper classes, while the West was an international trade center gathering goods from the west as far as Rome to the east as far as Korea. Both markets show the prosperous economy in the Tang Dynasty.

 Tang West Market Museum 

In the north of the market, there is the Tang West Market Museum, focusing on the Silk Road culture. With an area of 3.5 hectares (9 acres), the museum stores more than 20,000 relics from Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC) to Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Exquisite bronzes, colorful ceramics, various terra figures, bright gold and silver wares and gorgeous silks are shown in the museum.

In the first floor you can see a glass floor, under which stands the original West Market Site. The ancient well mouth and sewer are still intact. Even the track left by horses and carriages can also be seen today. From all of these, we are able to see a little bit of the West Market’s prosperity.

Highlights

Tang West Market Museum is the first civilian on-site museum in China, established on the site of the West market of the Tang chang’an city. The total collection of more than 20,000 pieces comprises of various cultural relics, and mainly exhibits the cultural relics extracted from the archaeological site of the West Market and also includes other meticulously collected treasures by the founder of the museum. The relics displayed cover a long period of history, of about 3000 years, ranging from the Shang and Zhou dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The collection includes exquisite and mysterious bronze ware, splendid and colorful pottery ware, rich postures of terra-cotta figurines, brilliant gold and silver wares, gorgeous and delicate silk remains, and jade pieces of wonderful workmanship, as well as a great number of relics such as currency, Epitaph, religious and architectures; these fill the spacious museum and afford precedence to magnificent exhibitions.

Tang West Market Museum has a complete exhibition series including “Permanent Exhibition, Thematic Display, Temporary Exhibition, and Special Exhibition & Treasures Appraisal Club.” This exhibition gathers collections pertinent to history, arts and folks from private collectors, which often offers to visitors new visual experiences. The museum with its magnificent and unique design, beautiful environment, fully-functional and first-class service has surely become a successful and important architectural landmark; a cultural site of public-love and provides a prominent window for the opening of Xi’an. The museum was awarded the National 4A tourism Resorts, a title representative of the cultural industry, and the National Second Level Museum title.

The basic exhibition “start of the Silk Road” of the Museum, extracted from the site of the “cross Street” at northeast of Tang West Market, displays some cultural relics unearthed from this site and introduces the various trade categories which exhibit the cultural and economic prosperity as an outcome of these trading categories; the thematic exhibition “Experiences on the Silk Road” shows several traditional workmanship that existed on the ancient silk road. The temporary exhibition on the 3rd floor is a platform for transitory displays in the West Market Museum, which provides opportunities to put up exhibitions on different themes such as the culture of the Silk Road, the business culture in Tang Dynasty and so on. Special exhibitions display the inscriptions and excellent works which facilitate the appreciation of the exquisiteness of the cultural relics and allows for an insight into the history.

How to get to Tang West Market

Travel with ChinaDragonTours (top recommended)

If you want to get out of the traffic and hassle of navigation, you can book a private tour package that includes visiting, dining and transfer from us. Our local guide and driver will escort you to the Tang West Market Museum in Xi’an in the fastest and most convenient way and take care of all the details. You just have to focus on the visiting.

Independent Traveler

1. Take bus 10, 24, 43, 106, 107, 184, 201, 322, 402, 503, or 916 and get off at Datang Xishi (Tang West Market) Station.
2. Take bus 40, 207, 212, 216, Ring Line 1, Ring Line 2, or Tour Bus 7 and get off at Gaoxinerlu Station.

Useful Travel Tips

  1. Avoid visiting during school holidays and Golden Week in October as there will be large numbers of local tourists.
  2. Admission Fee: Floor 1 to 3: free   Floor 4: CNY 30
    Opening Hours: April – October: 09:00-17:30   November-March: 09:00-17:00
    Closed on Mondays.
  3. Information
    Postcode: 710068
    Tel: 86-029-84351808
    Fax:86-029-84351811
    E-mail: dtxsbwg@163.com

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Edited by Bella Ren/任新月