The Silk Route Museum is located in Jiuquan, Gansu Province, China along the Silk Road, which connected Rome to China and was used by Marco Polo. It is built over the tomb of the Xiliang King in Gansu Province.
The exhibition area is over 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2). It exhibits antiquities from the Silk Road. Over 35,000 antiques in the famous Jade Road collection, and the largest subterranean art gallery, The Wei Jin Tombs. It also contains hundreds of local historical sites on the Hexi Corridor of ancient China.
The museum was founded by Mei Ping Wu,[1] and all work on it is by volunteers. Wu, CEO, chief architect, and designer of the museum, said: “2008 is a year of birth for the museum and history will come alive."[1] The museum is committed to promoting understanding between East and West by focusing on the study of the extraordinary range of cultures array long the Silk Road.
Known for being the largest subterranean art gallery in the world and housing many colorful murals, the gallery has attracted tourists from both domestic and foreign since 1972, when it was originally excavated. Most tombs are of past families, housing bodies of three or four generations, and currently Grave 6 and Grave 7 are open for tourism with more to be developed responsibly in the future.
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Exhibitions[2] include displays of art, tools, and fossils covering the Jiuquan period, and the earliest evidence of central Asian civilization. In the Xiliang Hall, master pieces of jade work of Neolithic origin. A jade market open to local and outside traders, as well as, auctions and the Moon Light Cup of Jiuquan. The rotating Silk Road gallery sponsored by the Silk Road Fund sponsors art contests to promote art in village schools.
The show pieces possess the characteristics from the pre-historical culture to Ming and Qing dynasties, which represent the history, politics, economy, science and technology, cultural arts, husbandry production, religious belief and daily customs from thousands of years ago.
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