Qinghai Provincial Museum

The Qinghai Provincial Museum holds one of the better collections in northwest China, with particular strength in prehistoric artefacts from the Majiayao, Banshan, and Machang cultures that developed along the Yellow River in what is now Qinghai. These Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures produced painted pottery of a quality and variety not matched elsewhere in early China, and the museum's collection of these pieces is the most comprehensive available.

The museum also covers the history of the Silk Road routes through Qinghai, Tibetan Buddhist art, and the ethnography of the plateau's ethnic groups. The building is a handsome modern structure in the Chengxi district, and admission is free. Labels are mainly in Chinese; the prehistoric pottery collection is rewarding even without language.

things to do museum
A story
The museum's most famous artefact is a painted pottery urn from the Majiayao culture (c. 3100–2700 BCE) decorated with dancing figures — one of the earliest depictions of human dance in Chinese art. The figures, painted in black on orange clay, are arranged in groups with arms linked, unmistakably dancing. The urn has been reproduced on postage stamps and in textbooks; the original is here, and it is better than any reproduction suggests.