Travel Guide - Xiushanmeng Museum

Xiushanmeng Museum is located in Xiushan Gate, an ancient gate tower in west Chizhou city China vacation deals, Anhui province. Xiushanmeng Museum features wood, stone and brick carvings. There are more than 4,000 antiques in the museum, among which 11 are national second-grade cultural relics.

Xiushanmeng Museum, built in 2003, was financed by Luo Qianghu, a local real estate businessman. Luo entered the realm of antiques completely by chance. Luo was appointed to rebuild Xiushan Gate by Chizhou government officials in 2002. When he was looking for ancient materials for reconstruction, Luo found to his great surprise that many valuable antiques were discarded by villagers. Seeing this, Luo decided to collect those antiques from village to village to give them better protection. Luo’s deed won great support from villagers, who sold to Luo their collected antiques, some of which were so valuable that the villagers had cherished them all their lives. By the sales of 20 of his estates and loans from banks, Luo collected 40 million yuan for the antiques and built a museum for them, Xiushanmeng Museum, which was intended to preserve the local historic culture of Chizhou.

Xiushanmeng Museum has five floors, each focusing on a different theme.

The first floor features stone art, such as stone lions, stone plates and stone drums.

A stone wall carved with patterns of Buddhist swastikas lies behind the main entrance to greet visitors. The top of the wall is decorated with carvings of the weapons of the Eight Immortals. The Eight Immortals, who purportedly have the magical power of turning bad luck into good, are symbols of blessings and fortune in Chinese culture top China tours.

Five vigorous stone lions display lively expressions and poses, each playing with a ball beneath its feet. In Chinese, the pronunciation of "lion” coincides with that of “generation”, conveying the wish for five generations to get together at the same time.

The second floor revolves around wooden art, especially wooden furniture, such as beds, folding screens, carvings and desks. The wooden bed in the young master’s room is eye-catching. The bed frame is decorated with more than one hundred figures, each representing the themes of blessing, prosperity and longevity. The most special part of the bed lies in its structure, as the top of the bed provides a roof. While the gilded wooden dresser produces a golden radiance, the bed beside it looks somber and serene due to its dark paintings and broad frames.

The third floor centers on the architectural styles of Chizhou locals. Different areas, such as living rooms, studies, theaters and corridors are displayed in order to reenact the daily lives of ancient people.

The warm-bed is worth a close look. The bed, covered with colorful paintings, dates back to the Qing dynasty (1644-1912). The gilded cabinets are exquisitely placed beside the bed. The chandelier hanging over the bed was imported and dates back to the Qing dynasty.

The fourth floor features collections of paintings and calligraphy from various periods popular China travel package. Some of them came from local officials. Some of them are works from famous poets who were inspired by the natural beauty in Chizhou, such as Li Bai, a poet of the Tang dynasty, and Tao Yuanming, a poet of the Eastern Jin dynasty.

Li Bai, a famous poet who had a profound interest in natural landscapes, visited Chizhou four times. His renowned poem “Qiupu Song”, like a string of shining pearls, forever emits radiance on the bank of the Qiupu River, Chizhou city. Ma Dongsheng, a member of the Chinese Calligrapher's Association, gave his copy of "Qiupu Song” to the museum, which can be seen near the entrance on the fourth floor.

The top floor contains materials concerning Zhaoming Prince (501-531), who once helped Chizhou locals to survive natural disasters. The gratitude of Zhaoming Prince could be seen through the horizontal plate high on the gate, which is inscribed with the words, “Paying Homage to You for Thousands of Years.”

Nowadays the exhibits in the museum travel China guide are seldom used. But a walk inside the museum is well worth the effort as one feels as if one has returned to the ancient times, when Hui culture could be found everywhere.