Chengdu Travel Guide - San Xing Dui

Chengdu Travel - This last weekend we visited another of Chengdu's important tourist sites - The San Xing Dui museum.
San Xing Dui - about an hour's drive outside central Chengdu - is the location of an excavation site where relics from a lost civilisation have been found. These artifacts are very old - carbon dating putting them from periods dating between the - 11th and 13th century BC.
Apart from their age - the finds are also unique, since the styles employed in their design are totally different from anything else found in Chinese art, and that the large size of some of the bronze castings show that the manufacturers used casting techniques - adding lead to the bronze alloy mix - that were remarkably advanced for this period of time. The Bronze head, in the picture above, is massive - 4 or 5 adults would easy fit into to it - and its tall enough so they would only be visible from chest height up. If I was to compare this stuff to those pre-historic bronze collections I've seen back home in the UK - usually made up of small bronze blades - then I'd classify some of this stuff as gigantic.
But perhaps what's so intriguing about the exhibits, are their sheer mystery. Apart from the finds there are no records whatsoever - not even through folklore or myth - of this truly lost civilisation.

For lots of pics of that illustrates the stuff to be found here - just scroll down.


Here's the gang again - our nephew and a friend's daughter - on their way into the museum. The exhibition halls are sighted in a park. Admission was quite expensive - 86RMB for adults, half price for kids and since the smallest of our team was under 1.20m - she got in for free.
We drove our own car here - but there are buses going out in this direction - and decent traveler friendly hotels like Sam's and Sim's can put you onto good transport possibilities.


There are two exhibition halls - here's the first - built into a mound.


Inside, I'm afraid the display design and lay-out, is rather boring and conservative in comparison to the fantastic ancient art that's exhibited in the halls.
Also you're not allowed to use flash-photography - and lighting levels are very low. I'm lucky to have camera with an image stabilising function - and a copy of photoshop on my computer to edit and sharpen the images for latter use. But if you do want good photos here - you need either a very steady hand or a tripod, and a good photo-editing program is a must. I took many photos - maybe one out of ten are what I'd consider decent.


The other problem here - is lack of interesting labeling. But I suppose if the stuff does come from a lost civilisation with no recorded history - then there's very little to write about it.
Like all of these type of sites - you can hire an English speaking guide.


But the quality of the exhibits well make-up for any lack of imagination on the presentation front. This stuff really is treasure - here's a gold mask dating from the 13th century BC.



Here are Tiger teeth - they've gone that color through being buried for over 3,000 years together with all those bronze artifacts.


In that first hall there's a lot of jade - and not your usual jade jewelry - but jade knives!!!


Here's a beautiful selection of jade blades.


This is the biggest - they've described it as a sacrificial knife. I wouldn't fancy being an offering to the gods after being poked by that!


In these kinds of places I often much prefer the small to the big - this jade knife is less that 30cm long - but it has such a neat design.


More Jade on smaller scale - a spear head - these guys could carve.


But it is the ability to produce big that makes the San Xing Dui exhibition so special. The crowing pieces of the first hall are a couple of weird bronze 'ornaments' - that look like cross between very fancy lampposts and exhibits in some avant-garde art show. Kind of crazy to think that they're over 3,000 years old.


The second hall - which was the original museum before the site developed and expanded.


Inside we have all the bronze heads, and a lot of other bronze artifacts - there are three level of exhibition hall - you ascend on a spiral walkway.


Again another large bronze casting - this time exhibiting those protruding pupils that seem to be a popular style with some of the heads.


Now this guy is big - and it's also the worlds oldest life size bronze statue of a human - in fact it's slightly over life size at 2.6m. Obviously in the days when it was still serving its purpose, probably as some religious monument - its held something in those hands.


Again another huge head/mask.


These next two guys are on a smaller scale.


Since we have so little knowledge of this civilisation, pieces like this, can certainly get the imagination rolling.


Some of those masks are covered in gold.



But once again its the small stuff that fascinates me - an eagle head bronze - about 6cm high.


here we have a chicken.


A fantastic bird.


Now we're getting onto the bigger stuff again - this is well over 1 m high - and with all those crazy designs, would surely be an inspiration for some modern day tattoo artist.


And if everything gets too much - then there are useful sites outside the exhibition halls - like a sacrifice platform to put them naughty kids in their place. Actually there are no ruins - remains consist of mounds. But San Xing Dui does home a truly remarkable collection - a good day out.