A Glimpse of Jinsha

　　Called "Shu" in ancient times, Sichuan is one of the provinces that has the longest history and most brilliant culture in China. Chengdu, which has flat topography and advanced water conservancy, together with the Western Sichuan Plain, bred the splendid civilization of ancient Shu. Some experts thought that the ancient Chinese civilization was originated from Sichuan and the Minjiang River Valley, which lies in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Thus, this conclusion stood against the traditional saying that Chinese culture originated from the Yellow River.. But archaeological discoveries in recent years have adequately proved this conclusion further, and Jinsha, the crown of ancient Shu's civilization, made the profile of ancient Shu's civilization clearer day by day.

　　Jinsha Site, a surprising archeological find

　　There are lots of historic sites under the ground of Chengdu, and digging in any place could result in surprising discoveries. Discovers have been made in other cities, such as china in Jingde Town in Jiangzi Provice and imperial articles in Xi'an, but those discoveries were expected, whereas Chengdu's discoveries, such as the Jinsha site, came as a surprise.

　　Several years ago, construction workers accidentally discovered the Jinsha Site at the west suburb of Chengdu. More than one thousand precious cultural relics were cleaned up from the site, including gold articles, jade articles, bronze ware, stoneware and ivory articles. In addition, plenty of pottery wares and nearly one ton of ivory were unearthed there. Analyzed from the material and sculpt of cultural relics unearthed, it is to a certain extent similar to the Sanxingdui Site, which is also situated on Chengdu Plain with a history stretching back 4,000-5,000 years.