Shandong Provincial Museum

Holding over 140,000 historical relics, Shandong Provincial Museum displays natural and historical treasures ranking from Dawenkou Culture (3500-2500BC) and Longshan Culture, bronzes from the Shang (17th century BC-11th century BC) and Zhou periods (1766-770BC), and Bamboo Slips of the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD).

Built in 1954 in Jinan, Shandong Provincial Museum is the first provincial comprehensive local museum after the found of the People's Republic of China. The original museum has been replaced by a new one, which was set up on a large square and opened to the public on November 16, 2010.

Covering a construction area of 82,900 square meters, the museum has five storeys and ten exhibitions. They include the exhibition of Shandong’s history, exhibition of Confucius culture, figure paintings from the Han Dynasty, Buddhist sculpture, Introduction to Archaeology, collection of calligraphy and paintings, collection of porcelain articles.

Exhibition of the Confucian Culture

Confucius is a famous thinker and educators that lived in Spring and Autumn period (770BC-476BC). He created Confucianism which has deeply affected the development of Chinese history over the past 2000 years, and has become one of the most influential ancient cultures in the world. The Exhibition of the Confucian Culture is divided into four parts: the Life of Confucius, the Idea of Confucius and its Impact, the Teacher of All Times, and Confucianism and the World. It provides a wonderful experience to have in-deep knowledge of Chinese traditional culture.

Exhibition of the King of Lu State of Ming Dynasty

The exhibition hall displays the historical relics excavated from the tomb of Zhu Tan, the first king of the Lu State in Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). In order to strengthen the governance, Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of Ming Dynasty, had his 23 sons to be kings of vassal states. His tenth son, Zhu Tan, was titled as the King of the Lu State. The hall presents precious historical relics covering crowns, ornaments, furniture, clothes, writing brushes, ink sticks, paper, inkstones, chess, calligraphy and painting, colored wooden figurines and so on. These relics reflect the true life of Zhu Tan in his Palace and the high artistic skills of Ming Dynasty as well.

Collection of porcelain articles

Based on the development of ancient porcelain, there are more than 500 porcelain articles present of different making skill spanning from Shang Period, Zhou Period, Tang Dynasty (618-907), Song (960-1279) and Jin Period (1115-1234), and Ming Dynasty, to Qing Dynasty (1636-1912), the last feudal dynasty in Chinese history. These treasures include Tri-color pottery double-fish vase, Ge-kiln plate of Song Dynasty, underglaze red bowl with interlocking flowers design in the Hong Wu Reign(1368-1398) period of Ming dynasty, contrasted colors vase with bamboo-shaped handles of Qing dynasty.