National Museum of China

The National Museum of China is an absolute treasure trove. After we finally made it through the lines of people (which it turns out we didn't have to) we entered the area with Tiananmen Square and crossed over to the National Museum. The building itself is absolutely immense, it must be at least 4 storeys high (and it has a couple of basement levels too) and covers thousands of square metres in area.

We met our favourite history buff (Luffy) inside and he immediately took us to the bottom floor where all the treasures of ancient China are on display. The first three main pieces we saw are all so valuable to China that they are not allowed to be displayed anywhere else. They were a clay pot and a hawk dated to around 2000-3000BC. There are also the remains of what they believe to be an ancient Chinese Emperor. It is thought these bones belonged to an emperor because of the pictures of a dragon and a tiger which were uncovered next to him.

We then walked through a couple of millennia worth of bronze artifacts. The details on some of these pieces was mind blowing. The majority of these date to around 1000BC - 200BC. They included dings (vessels for holding food tributes) wine vessels, water troughs, and even an early chilly bin/fridge. It felt to us, the thoroughly uninitiated in ancient human civilization, that much of the artwork was similar to that of Mayan/Aztec art, and there was also some similarities to Maori art, in particular the use of the koru.

We then moved on to an era with loads of jade and other stone artifacts. Particularly amazing was the pillow made from jade (not sure how comfortable it might have been), an instrument with hanging stones, a dragon fish which was an ornament for someone's roof eave, a water clock, and a spear head with two men hanging from chains.

Everywhere we stopped were treasures which were absolutely amazing. A jade burial shroud, a colourful tomb guardian, an original copy of Sunzi's "Art of War", a copy of China's first ever wooden tower (5 storeys tall, built in ShanXi and still standing today), and a royal pardon for the Qian family in the Song Dynasty - kept for 600 years by the family until used in the Ming Dynasty for the entire family to avoid the death penalty - one of their descendants was then instrumental in developing China's first atomic bomb.

We also lined up to get a close look at the tiara from a wife of one of the Emperors from the Qing Dynasty. Made from the feathers of a bird which has meant the rich blue colour has remained as vibrant as when it was first made.

We were thoroughly amazed by all of the wondrous items, and also very thankful to have Luffy along to give us the back story of some of the more interesting pieces. We only explored one of the basement levels of the museum, and it took us the best part of 3 hours. You could easily spend days getting lost in this place.

We were thoroughly beat by the end, so we headed to a Beijing hotpot restaurant for some lunch and then back to the hotel for a rest. A short wander through some back alleys in central Beijing before walking to a Beijing BBQ for dinner.Les mer