Guangxi Travel Notes: Liuzhou Museum
On October 27, 2023, we had breakfast at the hotel at 8:00 AM, took bus No. 25 at 8:30 to the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital stop, and crossed the street to find the Liuzhou Museum. It opened at 9:00 AM, and we entered for a visit.
The Liuzhou Museum was founded in 1959, located on the east side of People's Square in Liuzhou City, Guangxi. It enjoys convenient transportation and is a comprehensive national-level key museum equipped with advanced facilities and modern functions, as well as one of Liuzhou's landmark buildings. Over 50 years of development, the Liuzhou Museum has grown into one of the most powerful museums in the regional central cities. In 2007-2008, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage awarded the Liuzhou Museum the 'Zheng Zhenduo-Wang Yeqiu Cultural Relic Protection Award' both to individuals and the collective. In 2009, the themed exhibition 'Journey of Life' at the Liuzhou Museum won the Best Production Award among the top ten museum exhibitions nationwide. The Liuzhou Museum, a national AAAA-level cultural relic tourist attraction, covers an area of 39 mu (about 2.6 hectares), with a building area of 16,600 square meters and an exhibition area of 8,000 square meters. It oversees the Liuhou Temple cultural relic scenic area (32,000 square meters, a national key cultural relic protection unit) and the East Gate City Tower scenic area (5,700 square meters, a key cultural relic protection unit of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region). The main building of the museum is constructed from granite storm stone, designed in the style of an ancient city gate tower, elegant and dignified. The outer corridor features 21 reliefs symbolizing Liuzhou in the 21st century and its 2,100 years of profound history, reflecting Liuzhou's prehistoric civilization, ethnic folk culture, and modern culture. The museum houses a rich collection of artifacts, many of which have strong local characteristics and are national treasures due to their rarity and beauty. Permanent exhibitions include the History Hall, Ethnic Hall, Bronze Hall, Fan Painting and Calligraphy Hall, Paleontological Fossil Hall, and Stele Hall. Through scenic displays and artifacts from different historical periods, these exhibitions vividly and thoroughly recreate Liuzhou's historical appearance, showcasing the ancient city's charm, calling for cultural inheritance, and linking the ancient city's civilization through classic connections.
The History Hall displays hundreds of Liuzhou historical artifacts from the Paleolithic period to the Republic of China era, reflecting the development and evolution of Liuzhou's history and culture in terms of social change, economy, culture, and social life.
The Ethnic Hall showcases Zhuang folk songs, Miao festivals, Yao dances, and Dong architecture, along with various folk crafts including brocade, embroidery, ceramics, bamboo weaving, and straw weaving. It also presents Zhuang stilt houses, Yao and Miao ethnomedicine, and the folk literature and art of each ethnic group.
The Bronze Hall exhibits over 150 bronze artifacts, including a Western Zhou cloud-and-thunder-patterned trumpet-shaped bronze vessel, a Western Zhou human-face-patterned bronze sword, a Western Zhou spiral-patterned bronze bell, a Warring States cicada-patterned ram-horn button bell, a Warring States boot-shaped battle-axe, Warring States human-face and frog-patterned swords, a Han Dynasty bronze distiller, and an Eastern Han standing-frog bronze drum.
The Fan Painting and Calligraphy Hall displays over 200 fine fan paintings and calligraphy works from the Ming, Qing, and modern periods in the Liuzhou Museum's collection.
The Paleontological Fossil Hall features a rich variety of fossils spanning a long time frame, from China's earliest Chengjiang fossil biota (Cambrian period, 570 million years ago) to Quaternary mammal fossils from Liuzhou. Multimedia videos such as 'The Tragic Story of the Psittacosaurus,' 'Evolution of Paleontological Fossils,' and 'The Extinction of Dinosaurs' play on a loop in the exhibition hall.
The Liuzhou Museum has a relatively rich collection of exhibits. The visit took about two hours. At 11:00 AM, we exited the museum, took bus No. 25 back to the hotel, checked out at noon, then took bus No. 53 to Liuzhou Railway Station. We boarded train K381 at 2:05 PM heading to Nanning, arriving at Nanning Railway Station at 5:40 PM. After exiting the station, we checked into the Home Inn Huayi Hotel near the station. The standard room cost 113 yuan. Although breakfast was not included, the conditions were acceptable. The issue was that we had to gather at the railway station early the next morning for a day trip to Detian Waterfall and could not have breakfast, so we stayed nearby for convenience.
