www.bpmuseum.com

The Banpo Museum in Xi'an is located in the east of Xi'an and is the site of a village that dates back to around 6,000 years ago in the Neolithic era, which is known as the Yangshao Culture in China. Built in 1958, it is the first on-the-spot museum and also a museum of Neolithic site in China. The main hall, in the rear, was built over the excavation site. Two smaller exhibition halls by the entrance display unearthed items.

The site was discovered in 1953 and covers an area of approximately 50,000 square meters. Excavations revealed 45 houses, pottery, kilns, a burial ground, grain stores and tool stores. Banpo is considered to be one of the best examples of an agricultural community of this era anywhere in the world.

The museum boasts a collection of more than 30,000 cultural relics, of which 200 are of the first class. Among these cultural relics there are about 3,000 stone objects, 14,000 china items, 200 human bone fossils, and 200 fossils of ancient extinct life. The world famous piece is the Human Face and Fish Body Design Colored Pottery Basin unearthed in 1955 and with a history of about 10,000 years.

Covering 3,000 square meters, the preserved ruins of the primitive society in the exhibition hall vividly reflects the ancient production and life in the Banpo region. It details the gradual evolvement from the appearance of human beings, to the birth, development, prosperity and breakup of the clan society, through these precious relics and specimens.