China's first provincial bronze museum to debut in Shanxi

Shanxi is located in a core area of Chinese civilization, boasting a large number of unearthed cultural relics. The Shanxi bronze ware reflects the cultural context of the Shang (circa 16th century-11th century BC) and Zhou (circa 11th century-256 BC) dynasties and reflects the evolution of Chinese rituals and music. 

The establishment of Shanxi Bronze Museum will help add to the developments of museums in Shanxi and promote Shanxi's image as a province rich in cultural relics, according to Ning Lixin, explaining the reasons for establishing the museum. 

Meanwhile, Shanxi has been developing culture and tourism into pillar industries in recent years and museum is seen playing an important role in that process. 

"Visiting museums is a way to quickly learn about the history, culture and folk customs of a region in a short time. A high-level bronze museum is very necessary for tourism growth in Shanxi," Ning added. 

In addition, encouraging the protection of cultural relics protection and tackling cultural relics crimes are seen as key reasons for building the bronze museum, where a number of the retrieved bronzes are on show. 

There have been no cultural relics crimes reported since May 2018, in the wake of the successful campaign being waged by public security departments in Shanxi against criminals. Officials added that the exhibition of retrieved cultural relics was meaningful for local public security departments and cultural relics government departments.