Enjoying my life right now.

/ Friday, March 27, 2009

I'm back to posting!

I have not been updating the past few days as life over here was getting busier.
I will try to recall as much as possible to blog about my Day 21-24.
Nevertheless, it will be an elongated post.
But I will try to make it simple and sweet.
So I will start off my post blogging about Day 21.

Day 21:

No lesson today as we were heading to Hubei Provincial museum for a tour.
Hubei Provincial Museum is located in the Wuchang District of Wuhan, Hubei Province.
From what I know, it is the only provincial comprehensive museum in the province which collects, protects, and exhibits the cultural relics discovered in the province.
The pieces of the art display in the museum include the pottery, porcelains, jade, bronze vessels, ancient weapons, and ancient musical instruments.
I was astonished by the pieces of art work displayed right in front of my eyes.
Of course, the security in the museum was tight and we were only allowed to capture without using any camera flash.
This explains why some of the pictures I took were not clear.

Basically, the museum is divided into three parts: the Chime Bells Exhibition Hall, the Chu (a state in the Spring and Autumn Period (770BC-476BC)) Culture Exhibition Hall, and the Comprehensive Exhibition Building.
However, the Comprehensive Exhibition is still under construction .
Our first stop was the music hall after we reached.
All the musicians were wearing ancient clothes playing a replica of the Chime Bells.
Naturally, I was enchanted by the ancient beautiful music.

Over at the Exhibition Hall, I get to see many cultural relics that have been unearthed from the tomb of Yi (the king of the Zeng Sate in the Warring States Period (476 BC - 221 BC).
As well as the exquisite bronze vessel known as 'Crane Standing on the Antler', ancient halberds, triangle-shaped swords called Shu, and the bamboo slips that were used for writing on in ancient times.
The most famous treasure is the Chime Bells, which is the largest bronze musical instrument ever discovered.
There are about 3,000 ancient Chinese characters on the bells, describing the music and the owner of this instrument.

Over at the Chu Culture Exhibition Hall features the regional culture of the Chu State.
Most of the cultural relics displayed here are bronze vessels, lacquer works, bamboo and wooden artifacts, and silk knitted products.
I get to see the various ancient weapons of the Chu State such as the sword of Gou Jian (the king of the Yue State in the Spring and Autumn Period) and the shaft of Fu Chai (the king of the Wu State in the Spring and Autumn Period).
Pieces of chariots and horses of the Chu State were also displayed in this hall.
In addition to the unearthed cultural relics, there were some restored models of the houses in which Chu people lived are shown .
It give me a more direct impression of the ancient Chu people's lives.