Xian Museum

Xian Museum

Xian Museum Facts

Located in the southwest of the Jianfu Temple, Xi'an Museum was opened to the public on the World Museum's Day, May 18th, 2007. Not only does it enhance the environment of the nearby ancient building complex but also means that Xi'an has a large municipal museum at long last.

Chinese Name: 西安博物馆

Type: Culture & Museums

Address: No.72 Youyi West Road, Xi 'an, Shaanxi

Best Seasons: All year around

Recommended Visiting Hours: about 1-2 hours

Popular Activities: Enjoy Xi 'an culture; Watch cultural relics

Opening Hours: Summer time: 08:30 – 18:30
Winter time: 08:30 – 17:30

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Why Visit Xian Museum?

  1. Not only does Xian Museum enhance the environment of the nearby ancient building complex but also means that Xi’an has a large municipal museum at long last.
  2. The architectural design of the museum follows the traditional Chinese concept of the universe – a round heaven and a square earth. It has been recognized as one of the ten landmark buildings of the city and offers excellent facilities for the display of precious cultural relics thereby ensuring their full appreciation.
  3. Xi ‘an museum is a collection of museums, historical sites, city gardens as one of the museum.Opened in 2007, it is famous for the precious cultural relics displayed, the melodious wild goose pagoda and the beautiful garden landscape of the tang dynasty’s thousand-year old pagoda.

Brief Introduction of Xian Museum

Located in the southwest of the Jianfu Temple, Xi’an Museum was opened to the public on the World Museum’s Day, May 18th, 2007. Not only does it enhance the environment of the nearby ancient building complex but also means that Xi’an has a large municipal museum at long last.

As many as 130, 000 fine cultural relics are kept here, most of which were unearthed in the important tombs and the capital sites of the Zhou Dynasty (11th century BC-221 BC), the Qin Dynasty (221 BC-206 BC), the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), and the Tang Dynasty (618-907). More than 2,000 of these articles reflect the outstanding technological achievements of past dynasties.

It is a three-storied building, with an underground floor unseen from the outside. The underground exhibition hall features many relics that have been unearthed, showing the history of Xi’an, the one-time capital of 13 dynasties, its economy, social life, as well as cultural exchange and trade with foreign countries. The exhibition hall on the first floor has a display of Buddhist statues and other precious historical relics of municipal counties and districts. Most of the lifelike statues are carved in stone while some fine gilded statues are made of copp er and bronze. They display the pomp of the Buddhism in Chang’an (The name of Xi’an in ancient times).

Main Attractions

The Culture Exhibition Hall

The culture exhibition hall is the main building of Xi’an Museum, which was designed by Mrs. Zhang Jinqiu, the famous designer, academician of the Chinese Academy of Science, designer of Shaanxi History Museum. It was selected as one of the ten symbol architectures of Xi’an in future in an activity advocated by the news media of 2004.

The museum covers a floor space of over 16 000 square meters, with exhibition area of over 5 000 square meters. Out of the 130 000 pieces or sets of collected culture relics, 14 400 pieces or sets are cherished culture relics, exceeding national standard of third class. Almost 2 000 pieces or sets of relics are exhibited to the public for the first time.

The extraordinarily splendid, various culture relics embody the different aspects of ancient Chinese history. The exhibition of Xi’an Museum consists of the basic exhibition, specific-themed exhibition and temporary exhibition.

Basic Exhibition

The basic exhibition is arranged under the theme of “ancient capital Xi’an” which displays its construction history of more than one thousand years as the capital of thirteen dynasties in the past. The culture relics on show present a grand vista of people’s daily lives during that period of history.

There are two subbranches under the main theme, namely “the history of Xi’an” and “the grand picture of the imperial city”. For the first part, the exhibition concentrates on the development and changes of the size, pattern of the dynasties especially after Tang dynasty. All of these are vividly demonstrated in the form of dedicated city models. For example, the white porcelain plate of the Tang Dynasty, gold mirror, female pottery figures, three-colored riding horses and the silk routes.

For the second part, the historical relics are grouped by different usages to show a grand picture of people’s lives and society during different dynasties.

Ancient Calligraphy Artistic Exhibition

Under the theme of “various styles of calligraphy, the great history”, there are about 100 pieces of calligraphy works selected from nearly 1000 ones, among which “to visit a friend at the mountain in spring ” is the work by Sheng Mao of Yuan Dynasty.

Jianfu Temple

In the Tang Dynasty, Jianfu Temple was a very famous royal temple, but destroyed in the war at the end of the Tang Dynasty. The existed Jianfu Temple was rebuilt in Ming and Qing dynasties. The hall buildings are distributed along the middle axis from the main entrance gate to the small Wild Goose Pagoda, including Bell Drum Tower, Cishi Cabinet, the Grate Hall of the Buddha, and Baiyi Cabinet.

The small Wild Goose Pagoda was originally called “Jianfu Pagoda”. The body of the pagoda was an originally squarely shaped brick tower with 15 stories. After some times of earthquakes in the Ming Dynasty, the top and the 14th and 15th stories of the pagoda were destroyed, and the body has experienced cracking and “healing”. People called that “the Magical Healing”.

How to get to Xian Museum

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 Xian Museum in the fastest and most convenient way and take care of all the details. You just have to focus on the visiting.

Independent Traveler

  • By bus:
    1. Take bus line 18, 203, 204, 218, 229, 258, 407, 410, or Tourist Line 7, get off at the Xiajiazhuang Station and walk north to the gate of the museum.
    2. Take bus line 18, 21, 29, 32, 40, 46, 203, 204, 218, 224, 258, 407, 410, 508, 521, 618, 700, 707, 712, Tourist Line 7 or Tourist Line 8 (610), get off at the Small Wild Goose Pagoda Station, enter from the north gate of the Jianfu Temple, and find the museum in the southwest corner of the temple.
  • By metro:
    Take metro line 2, get off at the Nanshaomen Station, leave from Exit A1 or A2, walk west to the north gate of the Jianfu Temple, and then find the museum inside.

Useful Travel Tips

  1. Ticket Price
    Free tickets can be acquired from 9:00 to 16:00 with one’s ID card or passport.
    Once visitors add up to 3,000, no ticket will be available.
    Opening Hours
    March 15th to October 31st: 9:00-18:00  November 1st to the next March 14th: 9:00-17:30
    Tuesdays: Closed
  2. You can get a free ticket just by your ID card to enter the museum. ( The small Wild Goose Pagoda is not included. )
  3. Phone Number of Xian Museum: +86 29 8780 3591

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