Discover Baoji: Bronze, Industrial Heritage and Folk Culture

If you are looking for a hotel in Baoji, your interest in bronze culture, industrial history or regional folk culture can provide a starting point for planning your trip. The city offers a range of cultural highlights, from the Baoji Bronzeware Museum and wartime industrial heritage to exhibitions on regional customs. Chinese Shigu Park also combines exhibitions with garden visits and leisure activities.

Bronze Culture at the Baoji Bronzeware Museum

The Baoji Bronzeware Museum is located at the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains, on the south bank of the Wei River, within Chinese Shigu Park. As a national first-class museum, it focuses on the collection, study and exhibition of the bronze culture of the Zhou and Qin periods. The permanent exhibition, “Bronze Cast Civilization,” takes visitors through four halls: “Land of Bronze Vessels,” “Land of Zhou Rites,” “Path of the Qin Beginning” and “Light of Wisdom.” It displays more than 1,100 high-quality bronze objects unearthed in Baoji.

The current visiting hours are as follows: the museum is closed on Mondays and open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Last admission is at 4:30 p.m. Advance reservations through the museum’s WeChat account are recommended. Visiting information may change, so check the hours before your visit.

Parkland and Shigu Culture

Chinese Shigu Park is located on Shigu Mountain in Baoji’s Weibin District. The Shigu stone drums, described as “China’s first ancient cultural relic,” were found there. The park is a national 4A-rated tourist attraction and covers 462 mu. Its features include cultural relic exhibitions, displays on Shigu culture, garden visits and leisure activities; more than 87 percent of the park is green space.

The Chen Cang Shigu Pavilion in the park is 56.9 meters high, follows an architectural style from the Qin and Han periods, and covers 7,200 square meters. Inside, you can see the Shigu stone drums and research findings on Shigu culture. Visitors can climb the pavilion, which offers views of the Qinling Mountains, the scenery along the Wei River and the cityscape. The park and pavilion offer different perspectives on the subject: gardens and parkland set the scene outdoors, while the stone drums and their associated culture take center stage inside the pavilion.

Industrial History at Changle Yuan

Changle Yuan Anti-Japanese Industrial Heritage is a protected wartime industrial heritage site established around the former location of the Shenxin Textile Factory. The factory was founded in 1938. The site includes the cave factory, the Fuxin-Shenxin administrative building, Lenong Villa and the Shell Workshop, among other structures. Phase I of the site is located on Bao-Shi Road in Baoji’s Jintai District.

During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the cave factory was the largest underground factory. It produced large quantities of cotton yarn and cotton fabric for military and civilian use, making an important contribution to victory in the war. Changle Yuan has been recognized as a major national cultural relic protection unit and as part of the first national batch of industrial heritage sites. It has also been recognized as a first-batch provincial-level cultural experience park in Shaanxi and as a patriotism education site. The focus here is on Baoji’s industrial and historical dimensions.

Folk Culture, Stone Inscriptions and Xifu Old Street

The Baoji Folk Museum at 12 Xibao Road is dedicated to collecting, exhibiting and studying regional folk culture. Its permanent exhibition, “Baoji Folk Culture,” is divided into the sections “Life in West Fu” and “Baoji Customs.” Collection objects, multimedia presentations and reconstructed scenes introduce the region’s customs and cultural traditions. The building covers around 8,179.91 square meters, including about 3,361 square meters of exhibition space; the collection comprises around 1,252 exhibits or exhibit groups. It has four floors and, in some sections, five. The museum opened to the public free of charge on December 19, 2012.

The Stele Forest of Jintai Temple is the site with the greatest variety of collected stone inscriptions in Baoji’s urban area. The complex covers 150 square meters, was built in two phases over two years and contains 116 stone inscriptions. Another highlight is Xifu Old Street in Jintai District, on Beipo Shengliyuan: it is a 4A-rated tourist area, a characteristic street for intangible cultural heritage and a provincial-level tourist leisure street. It is also Baoji’s largest cluster of intangible cultural heritage offerings. The sites differ markedly in their themes, ranging from bronze and stone inscriptions to industrial history, regional customs and intangible cultural heritage.

Discover more destinations: Xianyang, Shangluo, Yangquan, Shuozhou, Yulin, Yuncheng, Jinzhong, Weinan.

For the main travel overview: Shaanxi.