Xianyang Museum

The Xianyang Museum is located on Zhongshan Street of Xianyang City, 28 KM from Xian City.

The Xianyang Museum is a famous local history museum in China, which was originally a Confucian temple, was reconstructed and open in the public in 1962.

Xianyang Museum focuses on the historical artifacts of these two dynasties. Its construction area is 3,855 square meters and the exhibition area is 1,216 square meters. It houses 15,000 or more cultural artifacts, out of
which 4,000 are now on display. The museum consists of seven exhibition halls.

Xianyang Museum consists of nine showrooms and a stele corridor. No.1, 2 and 3 showrooms exhibit cultural relics such as copper and golden coins, jade, pottery and even building materials of the Qin Dynasty. Showroom No. 4 displays some calligraphy and paintings of modern celebrities. The most striking cultural relics in Xiangyang Museum, the Han Dynasty Terra-cotta Soldiers, which are as grand as the Qin Terra-cotta Army, are well preserved in showroom No. 5 and 6. The 3,000 terra-cotta soldiers were excavated in Xianyang, 1965. The figures are colorful and vivid, showing the impressive manner of the royal soldiers of Han Dynasty. Showroom No. 7, 8 and 9 mainly display religious relics. A copper statues of Sitting Buddha made in the Ming Dynasty is the largest one of its kind. In addition, the newly opened Stele Corridor exhibits hundreds of ancient steles covered by marvelous calligraphy and carvings.

About the Xianyang City

Xianyang City is 28 kilometers away from Xian. It was the capital of the famous Qin Dynasty in Chinese history. The First Qin Emperor gained power in Xianyang and established the first centralized feudal multinational state. After the unification of the six kingdoms, the whole populace was orded to build “imperial chariot roads”. These wide roads were used for horses and chariots. There were three major roads which radiated from Xianyang. One went eastward to Hebei, Liaoning and Shandong. Another went south to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi and Anhui, and the third to Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The roads played an important role in the flow of products, the movement of the army and the consolidation of the national unification. In order to strengthen the power of the central government, the Fist Qin Emperor gave orders to set up palaces with distinctive features on the slope north of Xianyang. Here all members of the imperial families from the former six kingdoms were but under house arrest. At the same time, he moved almost 20,000 noble and rich families from the six kingdoms to Xianyang, which was already a prosperous metropolis with about 1,000,000 people at that time.

Xianyang was a vital link of communication to the northwest part of China during the Han Dynasty. It was also the imperial cemetery during the Western Han period. Of the eleven emperors of this period, nine were buried here. Near the imperial mausoleums, there are also tombs of many imperial kinsmen and civil and military officials. Therefore, Xianyang is known for its cultural and historical artifacts from the Qin and the Han dynasties.

Admission Fee: RMB 20
Opening Hours: 08:00 to 18:00
Recommended Time for a Visit: 1.5 hours