Nov 7, 2007

Nov 7, 2007

Started out so well. I am currently in the Airport Hotel, Chengdu which has earned its 2 stars just as convincingly as the Wang Jiang earned its 5. Our flight to Guangzhou has been cancelled. It should have been at 3:00 pm but now they say we will go at 9:00 pm. Don't know if that is the flight time or just the time we go back to the airport. I am with Dr. Fang Yu, who is going with me so I am glad I have got him to do all the pushing and shoving. Hope I see my luggage again some day

This morning I was taken to see the Jinsha archaeological site. Really pleased to see it. It was only discovered in 2001 and they have opened a fantastic museum to house the artefacts uncovered so far, and they say it is still 80% unexcavated. 3,000 years old. The lighting in the museum of artefacts was too low to photograph, but I have a nice book

	Hordes of school children marching around the site, which is a huge open air park right in Chengdu city. They seemed far more interested in me than any archaeology. All shouting "hello, how are you", "what's your name", "where you from". They pushed so hard to shake hands they nearly had me over before the teachers bellowed them into line. I kept bumping in to them in the museum galleries, where they marched round at high speed looking at anything but the exhibits. A joy to see a crowd of children at last.
	Inside the "relics" building, where the initial excavated area is protected and fully in view. Interesting in that they mark all of the locations where particular artefacts were found, which you can then see in the exhibits halls. There are thousands of jades, gold masks and bronzes, and tens of thousands of pots. Was the site suddenly abandoned? They don't know but think that most of the finds were deliberately buried as ritual sacrifice. There were piles of boars' tusks, which they labelled as lower jaw dog teeth. I was puzzled for a moment and then realized dog = canine. The clay surface was being sprayed with water all the time to stop it drying out. Not much chance of that in this atmosphere.
	The outside of the exhibits hall, which was only opened last year (2006). Considering that they only discovered the site in 2001, it is quite remarkable that they have designed, built, fitted out the exhibits and opened in such a short time. It is very, very good, but too gloomy to photograph and flashes were forbidden. You will just have to go there to see them. Note the misty appearance of the building. All buildings in Chengdu look like this, with an atmosphere which is always hovering on the brink of fog.

On to Nov 8 >>

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