Qianshan County Museum

Qianshan County Museum

Qianshan County Museum is a patriotic education base.

Qianshan has a long history and rich cultural heritage. As early as the late Paleocene, over 60 million years ago, many animals thrived here, making it the “birthplace of Asian mammals.” By around 100,000 years ago, humans were already living and active in the area east of today’s county town. During the Neolithic Age, the “Xuejiagang people” created a splendid primitive culture here. In the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, this land was part of the territories of the Wan Kingdom, Shu Gong Kingdom, and Chu Kingdom. It was known as the land of Wan due to the presence of Wan Mountain, Wan River, Wan Kingdom, and Wan County, from which Anhui Province’s abbreviated name “Wan” originates. Today’s Qianshan County is a provincial-level historical and cultural city. Owing to its strategically important location, it has served as the seat of various administrative divisions — including capitals, commanderies, prefectures, counties, and subprefectures — for over 2,000 years. Its long and storied history has undoubtedly endowed this ancient land with a wealth of renowned figures, scenic spots, and beautiful legends known both nationally and internationally. The birthplace of the Han Dynasty Yuefu narrative poem “The Peacock Flies Southeast,” the stories of the Three Kingdoms beauties Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao, as well as the birthplaces of Cheng Changgeng, the founder of Peking Opera, and the famous novelist Zhang Henshui, are all located in today’s Qianshan.

Qianshan County Museum was established in 1983 and is located in the center of the Tianzhu Mountain Tourist Resort. It is a national third-grade museum and also a comprehensive regional museum. The museum site is nestled against a mountain and by the water, with the Northern Song Dynasty architecture of the Taiping Pagoda as its centerpiece. It combines a garden with a museum, integrates sightseeing and leisure, and serves as an important promotional window for Qianshan, as well as one of the must-visit attractions of Tianzhu Mountain. The museum covers an area of 35,000 square meters, with a building area of 6,000 square meters. Its collection includes nearly 10,000 cultural relics and specimens, among which nearly 1,000 are classified as precious relics. The highlights include paleontological fossils, jade and pottery artifacts from the Xuejiagang Culture, lacquered bamboo and wooden objects, and bronze ware from the Spring and Autumn period to the Western Han Dynasty. The permanent exhibitions feature: a display of fine historical relics, a paleontological fossil exhibition, a display of the museum’s bronze mirrors, an exhibition on the artistic life of Cheng Changgeng, the Zhang Henshui Exhibition Hall, and the Northern Song Dynasty architecture of the Taiping Pagoda. The museum is currently open to the public free of charge.

Further Reading:

· China National Third-Grade Museum