Wuxi's phoenix rises from the ashes

Unearthed from the Xushan tombs in 2012, a chicken-spout jug from the Six Dynasties (229-589) period is displayed in the museum. [Photo/China Daily]

The Helyu City Relics Museum opened to the public beside the beautiful Taihu Lake in Wuxi on Oct 28.

The museum presents the remains of an ancient city built on the same site during China's Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC), which was named Helyu city.

Helyu was founded by a king of the same name—King Helyu of the Kingdom of Wu—who made the new settlement his capital city.

Wu was an ancient kingdom founded by the legendary king Taibo in the Yangtze River Delta region toward the end of the Shang Dynasty (c.16th century-11th century BC).

Helyu remained at the center of Wu culture as the kingdom entered its golden age, and the 2,500-year-old monuments are therefore of immense historic and cultural value to the region around the Yangtze River Delta.

Located beside Taihu Lake, the cradle of Wu culture, the outlines of the museum are smooth and designed to resemble an eggshell from which a phoenix flies out.

The phoenix is the city emblem of Wuxi, and so the building is intended to symbolize the ancient Helyu city's rise to regain its former glory.