Jinsha Site Museum is located in Chengdu, a southwestern municipal city, being well-known as the hometown of pandas in China. The museum, built on the real archaeological site, has been listed in the “First Batch of National Archaeological Site Parks” and regarded as a National First Level Museum. It mainly displays an ancient civilization – the history and society of the ancient Shu kingdom – which disappeared over three thousand years ago. The core mission of the museum is to help people learn about the history of Chengdu and the essence of its culture through the Jinsha Site Museum.
Thanks to the discovery of the Jinsha Site, the history of Chengdu city can be dated back to 3000 years ago, instead of the former record of 2300 years ago. The site not only marks the beginning history of Chengdu city and provides a key to solve the mystery of the decline and fall of the Sanxingdui civilization, but was also selected as one of the “Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries in 2001 of China” and recognized as a “Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level”. Jinsha Site Museum preserves the core area of the archaeological site in its original location and displays the real ritual ceremonial site of the ancient Shu kingdom, so that the public can watch the scene of archaeological excavation as well as the process of conservation on the original site. Inside the museum galleries, typical remains such as palace foundations, ash pits and graves, as well as important artifacts including gold masks, gold crown-lace, jade cong tubes, and stone kneeling human figures, are elaborately displayed to demonstrate the social life and spiritual beliefs of the ancient Shu kingdom. Outside the museum buildings, the site is densely vegetated to create a museum park with beautiful scenery. Since its opening, Jinsha Site Museum has been honored as a must-go “site park” by local people in their leisure time, meanwhile it also has been voted by the foreign travelers to be one of the “Top 10 Hot Museums of 2014 in China” on Tripadvisor and awarded “The Best Site Museum” by Fédération Internationale du Toursime on the 2015 annual elites awarding ceremony.
By fully integrating cultural attributes related to the Jinsha Site, various events have been held in our museum, which help the audience to have a better understanding of the archaeological site as well as the culture and history of our city. Primarily, Jinsha Site Museum is the first in China to launch the plan to extend museum opening hours to the night-time, which possess a unique charm and exerts significant influence in China. Moreover, the cultural events held in the Chinese New Year within only 20 days attract almost 600,000 visitors on average each year, and include Chinese lantern shows, art performances, traditional local markets and interactive games. In addition, in summer, it holds concerts, poetry readings, dramas and workshops for public welfare, etc. Secondly, Jinsha Site Museum has forged strong partnerships with different organizations, promoting the Jinsha culture deep into the life of our citizens. Thus, the Jinsha elements can be easily found in subway trains and stations, children’s museums in schools, as well as the art projects such as music, novels, movies, games, etc. Statistics show that over 100,000 school students visit our museum each year. The museum is even more popular among young people to post on social media, and quite comfortable for citizens to enjoy their everyday life activities such as fast walking, Chinese shadow-boxing, photography, etc. It blooms the living life of the citizens in all aspects and serves as a cultural bridge linking the public with the profound culture and history of Chengdu.
Since the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020, the museum has provided online events, such as exhibitions, courses, and guidance, which let our audience get museum information and knowledge constantly. In total, the online access frequencies of our internet users reached more than 20 million. Within only one year, the followers of the museum’s official social-media accounts have increased by 61.2%, almost one million.
The museum not only focuses on exploring the features of Jinsha culture, but also cooperating with museums globally. We have organized thematic exhibitions, academic exchanges and staff exchanges with dozens of museums from Italy, France, Canada, the US, Australia and Japan etc. In the coming days, our museum will enhance international contacts and cooperation with worldwide museums in the time of fighting Covid-19.
The year of 2021 marks the 20th anniversary for the discovery of the Jinsha Site and the 13th anniversary since the Jinsha Site Museum opened. As a young museum, Jinsha has held a series of temporary exhibitions themed on archaeology, art and world civilization, made great efforts on the preservation and conservation of the archaeological site, developed diversified digital projects, and launched education programs in schools, so that it has become the most popular cultural landmark in Chengdu. “The Sun and Immortal Birds” gold ornament, the collection highlight, has been regarded as the symbol of China’s Cultural Heritage as well as the logo of Chengdu, and its design fits the spirit of the city of “innovation, fashion and inclusiveness”. In the future, Jinsha Site Museum will continue to focus on heritage, education and cooperation to be the real cultural connection between the past and future of Chengdu.