China's Civilization: Roots along the Yellow River
Qinghai province
Updated: Aug 16, 2021
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Qinghai Museum
Located mostly on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in Northwest China's Qinghai province Qinghai has long been a melting pot for ethnic groups including the Han, Tibetan, Hui, Tu and Mongolian. The Qinghai Museum preserves a collection of more than 14,000 cultural relics. It is especially known for chipped stone tools from the Paleolithic Age, colored pottery from the Neolithic Age, bronze mirrors and inscriptions from the Han (206 BC-AD 220) and Tang (618-907) dynasties, paper money and stone statues from the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), and porcelain and paintings from the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.
Click the link to learn more about Qinghai Museum
Lajia Site (Neolithic)
Located in Lajia village, Qinghai province, the Lajia Site is a big historical site dating to the Neolithic Age. Dubbed “Pompeii of the Eastern World ”, it is home to many ancient cultural sites of the prehistoric era that emerged in the Miaodigou Age (4005-2300 BC), the period of Majiayao Culture (3300-2100 BC), Qijia Culture (2000-1900 BC), and Xindian Culture (1500-1000 BC), as well as the Bronze Age.
In 2011 the prehistoric Lajia Site was rated a national foremost protected cultural heritage site and one of the top ten archaeological discoveries of that year.
Machangyuan Site (Neolithic)
Located in Machangyuan township, Qinghai province, the late-Neolithic Machangyuan Site was first discovered by the Swedish archaeologist Johan Gunnar Andersson (1874 -1960) in 1924 while he was conducting a geologic survey in Northwest China.
Unearthed potteries at the site boasted unique shapes and decorated patterns. They were given an independent name as Machang Cultural type (after the location of their discovery). Painted potteries with a similar style to be found elsewhere were all categorized as this type to indicate the cultural lineage in the upper reaches of the Yellow River. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chinese archaeologists surveyed the site multiple times in the following decades. It is a national foremost protected cultural heritage site from the late Neolithic Age, and also one of the main sites for the study of ancient culture in eastern Qinghai province.
