Jinsha Site Museum

Jinsha Site Museum sits at 2 Jinsha Site Road in Qingyang District, on the archaeological remains of a Shu kingdom settlement discovered by chance during construction work in February 2001. Excavations dated the site to roughly 1200-650 BCE, spanning the late Shang to early Western Zhou periods, identifying it as a successor capital to the Sanxingdui culture after that earlier center declined. The museum is organized around two main structures: the Relics Hall, built directly over the excavation pits, which preserves ivory tusks, elephant bones, and sacrificial deposits in situ beneath a protective roof so visitors can see the archaeological layers as they were uncovered; and the Exhibition Hall, which displays the moveable finds chronologically and thematically, covering daily life, ritual practice, and craft production of the Shu people. The single most famous object is the Sun and Immortal Bird gold ornament, a thin gold foil disc depicting four birds circling a twelve-rayed sun, which was adopted in 2005 as the official symbol of China's Cultural Heritage. Other major holdings include more than 6,000 gold, bronze, jade, and stone artifacts, a large gold mask, and one of the largest deposits of ivory found at any Bronze Age site in China, believed to reflect ceremonial elephant-tusk offerings. The curatorial approach moves visitors from the in-situ excavation pits to the interpretive exhibition, emphasizing the archaeological process alongside the objects themselves. Conservation of the excavation pits is ongoing, and as of the 2026 visit period the museum has been undergoing partial renovation from December 2025 through an expected reopening in April 2027, so some galleries may be closed; current status should be checked before visiting.