A city of learning and creativity

History of craftsmanship, industrial ingenuity and scholarly ideals among what Chengdu has given to Chinese culture

The Sanxingdui Ruins site in Guanghan, Southwest China's Sichuan province, unveiled its new discovery of six "sacrificial pits" in March 2021.

More than 10,000 artifacts have been unearthed from the pits, which date back more than 3,000 years, including gold masks, bronzewares, ivories, jades and textiles.

These cultural relics offer new clues to the civilization of the ancient Shu state, which dominated today's Sichuan province thousands of years ago, according to archaeologists.

Surprisingly, the newly-discovered golden masks are similar in shape to the golden mask unearthed at the Jinsha site in Chengdu, Sichuan province, indicating a cultural continuity between the two sites.

The city of Chengdu has an urban history of more than 2,300 years while its civilization spans more than 4,500 years.

The Jinsha site is considered the second political, economic and cultural center of the ancient Shu state, after the Sanxingdui Ruins site.

Among cultural relics housed in the city's Jinsha Site Museum is a gold foil ornament featuring the sun and immortal birds, which was declared a symbol of Chinese cultural heritage in 2005.

The gold ornament measures only 0.2 millimeters in thickness and includes a combination of two sacred images. In the middle is a sun with 12 rays, and around the sun, four immortal birds fly counterclockwise.

It has a well-designed composition with fluid lines, demonstrating the ancient Shu people's exquisite craftsmanship and their pursuit of unity, tolerance and harmony.

In addition to the Jinsha site, Chengdu is home to a throng of cultural sites embodying its profound civilization such as the Wuhou Shrine Museum and the Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum.

There are also rich intangible cultural heritages that have been passed down for thousands of years such as Sichuan Opera along with Shu brocade and embroidery.