Guide to new Sanxingdui museum in Sichuan

Published : 2023-10-05

Editor︰Ryu

In addition to the recent Hangzhou Asian Games, the Hong Kong Palace Museum's brand new Sanxingdui Special Exhibition has also become a hot topic in the city.

However, if you feel that a single exhibition is not satisfying enough, why not "trace back to the source" and visit the new museum of Sanxingdui in Sichuan?

The new hall of the Sichuan Sanxingdui Museum opened in this July, with more than 600 pieces of cultural relics debuting for the first time.

What are the highlights of the new museum? Follow this guide right away!

The design of the new Sanxingdui museum is a mystery

三星堆博物館新館 — The new Sanxingdui Museum is five times the size of the old museum, and is the largest archaeological museum in southwest China. (Image Source: ArchDaily)

One of the highlights of the Sichuan Sanxingdui Museum's new museum is undoubtedly the design features.

At first glance, the new Sanxingdui Museum is comprised of three stacked structures connected, symbolising the "three-star pile"; covered above it is a large blue glass wall and bronze sun shade, presenting a wave-like curved surface stretching out.

A pair of giant "eyes of Ancient Shu" looking in the direction of the relics could be seen in the shape of the wall.

Entering the hall and coming to the centre of the lobby, a large circular copper hollow chandelier engraved with exquisite patterns of ancient Shu civilisation hangs down, which connects to the spiral ramp leading to the upper floor.

Standing inside, it feels as if you are gazing at history, making it an excellent spot for photo shoot.

Three main exhibition halls in Sanxingdui new museum

In the new hall of the Sanxingdui Museum, there are three regular exhibition areas: "Century Dream", "Majestic Capital" and "Heaven, Earth, Man and God".

Among them, "Century Dream" and "Majestic Capital" are on the first floor of the new hall, while "Heaven, Earth, Man and God" is on the second floor. Each exhibition area has its own display units.

In the "Century Dream" exhibition area, many texts and pictures related to the archaeology of Sanxingdui are displayed, giving visitors a preliminary understanding of Sanxingdui.

What's special is an "excavation" exhibit, which uses the latest 3D stereo imaging technology to reproduce the on-site view of the archaeological pit, allowing visitors to "personally" experience the excavation process.

Next is the "Majestic Capital" exhibition area, which consists of seven units, from exquisite gold processing, bronze casting, mysterious rituals to complex social structures etc.

A series of narratives tell the story of the ancient Shu Kingdom, gradually revealing the mystery of ancient Shu culture.

You can explore valuable Sanxingdui cultural relics such as exquisite bronze masks, gold masks, and bronze head statues in this exhibition area.

After visiting these two exhibition areas, visitors could take the escalator to the second floor and go to the "Heaven, Earth, Man and God" exhibition area.

The area is also divided into seven units, mainly displaying the important ritual vessels, ceremonial activities, worship objects etc. used by ancient Shu people, demonstrating the exceptional creativeness of the ancient Shu people.

In this exhibition area, three sets of cultural relics are particularly noteworthy, namely the bronze sacrificial altar, the bronze animal-riding top respect kneeling statue, and the bronze bird-footed god image.

These three sets of cultural relics were hand-paired by restorers, and combined with AI algorithms to achieve cross-pit splicing and patching restoration using digital virtual restoration technology.

And then 3D printing technology was used to create the original scale replicas, restoring the most real and complete appearance of the cultural relics.

The Sanxingdui new museum's café is full of creativity

After walking around all the exhibition areas, you all might want to find a place to have a rest. Why not take a break in the "Dui Dui Dui" coffee shop on the first floor or the "Dui Dui Dui" tea break area on the second floor?

三星堆博物館新館文創周邊 — The "Dui Dui Dui" Café in the new Sanxingdui Museum offers a wide variety of creatively styled options. (Web Image)

Here, whether it's coffee, tea, desserts, or even tea sets, all are full of Sanxingdui elements, such as clay pig shaped cake rolls, bronze mask cookies, bronze mask ice lollies, new museum mini-model chocolates etc.

The creative designs are excellent for photos, and the taste is also good, which sweet-toothed visitors must not miss!