Hebei Museum

The Hebei Museum on South Zhongshan Street is the best single reason to come to Shijiazhuang. Its collection of bronzes from the ancient Zhongshan Kingdom and Han dynasty jade burial suits ranks with anything in China, and the quality of the displays — spacious, well-lit, labelled in English — makes the material accessible to non-specialist visitors.

The centrepiece is the pair of jade burial suits from the Mancheng tombs, belonging to Liu Sheng, Prince of Zhongshan, and his wife Dou Wan. Each suit is assembled from more than 2,000 jade plaques stitched with gold wire into something that approximates human form. They are extraordinary objects, beautiful and slightly sinister — the green translucency of the jade combined with the deliberate body shape gives them an uncanny quality. The bronze vessels and weapons from the Zhongshan Kingdom, a state that controlled this region during the Warring States period, complete the ancient China material.

Other galleries cover the full span of Hebei's history, with particular strength in the Han, Northern Wei, and Tang periods. Free admission.

things to do museum
A story
The jade burial suits from the Mancheng tombs are made from more than 2,000 jade plaques sewn together with gold thread. The intention was to prevent the body from decomposing — jade was believed to be incorruptible, and if the container was sealed perfectly, the person inside might be preserved forever. The suits did not work. When the tombs were opened in 1968, the bodies had long since dissolved, leaving only the jade shells and the gold thread.