The Museum of Gansu Province

The Museum of Gansu Province is located in the south of Xijin West Road in Qilihe District of Lanzhou City, which has a rich and colorful collections in different kinds of forms, including the historical relics, the ethical relics and the revolutionary relics as well as the natural specimens, reaching as many as 350,000 in total. There are more than 82,000 historical relics which are collected in the forms of archeological discovery and donation, among which 16 historical relics are national treasures and over 720 ones are the first-grade culture relics in the state -level.

The exhibition goods contain the ancient extinct life fossils in the Cretaceous period, the colored potteries in the Old Age and the New Age, the bronze wares and porcelains in the Shang (1,600 B.C.-1,046 B.C.) and the Western Zhou Dynasties (1,046 B.C.-771 B.C.), the porcelains, the wood carvings, the silk products and paintings in the Song ( 960 A.D.- 1,279 A.D.), the Yuan (1,206 A.D.-1,368 A.D.), the Ming (1,368- A.D.-1,644 A.D.) and the Qing Dynasties (1,616 A.D.-1,911 A.D.), among which the famous ones includes the Copper Flying Horse and the Chariots and Horses Matrix unearthed from the Han (206 B.C-220 A.D.) Tomb in Wuwei City, the Etiquette Letters on the Bamboos, the Medicine Letters on the Bamboos and the Gold Sarire Coffin from Wuwei City. There is a famous the Yellow River Elephant Fossil in the museum, which is the biggest one in China as well as in the world.

The main feature of the Museum of Gansu Province

The museum covers an area of 28,000 square meters (33,488 square yards) with the exhibition hall area of 9,000 square meters (10,764 square yards), which is actually a comprehensive intelligent architecture combing the office area, the collection storehouses and the exhibition area with modern multi-functional high- tech equipments, and a professional website is established to share the culture relics collection and exhibition information with the people from all over the world. Generally speaking, there are three theme exhibit halls in the museum: Gansu Colored Pottery Exhibit Hall, the Silk Road Civilization Exhibit Hall and the Ancient Extinct Life Fossil Exhibit Hall, which is endowed with the title of “One of the Excellent Exhibit Collections in the Ten Halls in the Seventh National Museum Seminar”.

1. Gansu Colored Pottery Exhibit Hall

The Dadiwan Culture, the Yangshao Culture reflect brightly with the Colored Pottery Culture in the Bronze Age in Gansu Colored Pottery Exhibit Hall, among which the most famous ones are the colored three-legged pottery mortar with wide stripe patterns, the colored pottery bottle in the shape of the human head and the paintings from Dadiwan.

2. The Silk Road Civilization Exhibit Hall

As an important ancient city along the Silk Road as well as a blending pace for western culture and Chinese culture, there are numerous splendid and glorious art treasures remained in the city, presenting the greatness of the ancient civilization. There are more than 420 pieces of culture relics in the Silk Road Civilization Exhibit Hall, including the bronze wares of the prairie culture in the north, the Bronze Flying Horse and the Chariots and Horses Matrix in the Han Dynasty (206 B.C-220 A.D.), the Buddha Statues, the Silk Products, the gold and silver wares, the three-colored-glazed porcelains in the Tang Dynasty (618 A.D.-907 A.D.) and the blue and white porcelains in the Yuan Dynasty (1,206 A.D.-1,368 A.D.), which reflect the glorious civilization in the ancient times.

The Ancient Extinct Life Fossil Exhib Hall

A number of the ancient extinct life fossil samples are displayed in the Ancient Extinct Life Fossil Exhibit Hall with the evolution history of the Earth as the main line, mainly including four halls: the Earth Hall, the Ocean Animal Hall, the Dinosaur Hall, the Yellow River Elephant Hall, which introduce the knowledge of the earth and the living things as well as the ancient extinct life fossils.

Getting there:

The Museum is located in the south of Xijin West Road in Qilihe District of Lanzhou City, so you can take a bus No. 1, 31, 50, 53 and 58 to get there directly from the city center, and it is open to the public from 8: 30 am to 5: 30 pm during Monday and Friday.