Palace Museum displays unearthed treasures to celebrate National Day

A special exhibition displaying new archaeological discoveries from Sanxingdui - with most displayed outside Sichuan for the first time - will be held in the Hong Kong Palace Museum from September 27 to January 8 as a celebration of National Day.

Tickets for visiting the Gazing at Sanxingdui: New Archaeological Discoveries in Sichuan exhibition in September and October will be available from next Friday at 10am.

Prices are HK$150 for adults and HK$75 for children, full time students, and disadvantaged groups.

Tickets will be available on the HKPM website - https://www.hkpm.org.hk, the West Kowloon Cultural District website - https://www.westkowloon.hk, or mobile app, Cityline, online platforms of China Travel Service (Hong Kong) Limited, Fliggy, KKday, Klook and Trip.com.

Gazing at Sanxingdui is jointly organized by the Hong Kong Palace Museum, the Sanxingdui Museum, the Jinsha Site Museum, the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and the Chengdu Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute.

The exhibition, hosted in gallery eight, focuses on the new archaeological finds at Sanxingdui in Sichuan Province.

It features 120 pieces of precious bronze, jade, gold and pottery dated to 2,600-3,300 years ago. Twenty-three of the exhibits are grade-one national treasures.

Nearly half of the displays were unearthed in the most recent excavations between 2020 and 2022, with the majority of them exhibited outside Sichuan for the first time.

The first section, Timeless Gazes, features various bronze human heads, masks, and depictions of deities.

Urban Life at Sanxingdui, the second part of the exhibition, focuses on Sanxingdui as one of the largest Bronze Age metropolises in East Asia and shows both modest and palatial constructions from the site.

The third section, Gods and Shamans at Sanxingdui, houses altars and statues to show Sanxingdui people's religious activities and their understanding of the cosmos.

The Origin and Inheritance of Sanxingdui, the last section, explores "how the Sanxingdui culture and other closely connected cultures influenced and integrated each other over time forming the 'diversity in unity' developmental pattern of Chinese civilization," according to the Hong Kong Palace Museum.

Highlighted exhibits include various types of bronze masks, bronze statues and gold masks that can be traced back to 3,000-3,200 years ago.

There are also precious objects from the Jinsha Site Museum including a jade yue-ax dating back over 3,000 years which will be exhibited outside Sichuan for the first time.

Louis Ng Chi-wa, museum director of the Hong Kong Palace Museum said: "The exhibition marks the debut of the HKPM's The Origin and Development of Chinese Civilization special exhibition series, promoting the inheritance of the splendid Chinese culture."

Anticipating more visitors over the national holiday golden week, the museum will remain open through October 3.