Yunnan Provincial Museum

The Yunnan Provincial Museum reopened in 2015 in a striking new copper-clad building on the southern edge of the city, in the Guandu district. The permanent collection is one of the best in southwest China and focuses on three themes: the Bronze Age Dian civilisation, the long history of the province's many ethnic minorities, and Yunnan's role on the Southern Silk Road and the Tea-Horse Road to Tibet.

The Dian bronzes are the highlight — drums, cowrie shell containers, and figurines from royal tombs around Dianchi Lake, none of which look like anything else in Chinese archaeology. The minorities galleries are clear and comprehensive: costumes, looms, instruments, and religious objects from each of the province's 25 recognised groups. Entry is free; allow two to three hours.

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A story
The most famous object in the museum, the bronze 'Cowrie Shell Container with a Battle Scene', was excavated from a Dian-civilisation tomb at Shizhaishan in 1956. The lid of the container is a frozen tableau in bronze of an actual battle, with named warriors, horses, captives, and weapons — one of the earliest narrative scenes in Chinese sculpture, dating to around the 2nd century BC.

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