Tomb of the Nanyue King

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After a few weeks in Yunnan, my friend returned to Guangzhou. Only here for a day before moving on to the Philippines (where she'll be working the next few months) I took her sight-seeing around the city.

Our first stop was the Tomb of the Nanyue King. It's a 2000 year old tomb that was accidently found in the 1980's when digging for construction. I've visited it before, and it's by far my favorite tourist spot in the city. And as an added bonus for me, they've completely redone the museum in the past few years and the finished site is even better than before.

It starts out with a walk through the actual ruins. You walk down a narrow staircase and there are four rooms. Detailed descriptions explain what and who was found in each of the rooms. Since the construction code of 2000 years ago isn't quite what it is today, I found myself watching my head and my feet throughout the space; it's pretty safe, but you do need to be careful.

After leaving the tomb, we went back outside and then into the actual museum. The artifacts are neatly arranged and explainations are all given in good English. I suspect a lot of the renovation was done for the Asian Games last year and that's why all the signs are better.

My favorite artifact last time and this time is the jade armor. It wasn't meant to be worn into battle, but rather it's just for burial. I just marvel at all the tiny pieces sewn tightly together with red silk thread.

After oohing and ahhing over all the artifacts we made a brief stop in the ceramic pillow room. I'm not quite sure why they made pillows out of ceramic, but they're beautiful to look at.

By the time we finished at the museum, it was time for lunch and starting to rain.

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Photos

Not designed for tall people!
check out the doorway to her left!

Jade Armor for Burial
Sewn together with red silk thread.

Look at the detail!
I just think this is amazing.

Blue glass
Some of the oldest glass found in China

Ceramic Pillow
Ouch