By Lu Hongyan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-03-27 10:49

XI'AN -- The Shaanxi Provincial Museum in this capital city of Northwest Chinese province will begin to be open to visitors free of charge on Thursday.

From Tuesday to Sunday each week, 4,000 free tickets will be issued to visitors while the museum will be closed for maintenance on Monday, sources from the museum told chinadaily.com.cn.

As China's first modern museum, the Shaanxi Provincial Museum opened to visitors on June 20, 1991.

Last year, the State invested more than 10 million yuan (US$1.4 million) to refurbish the museum, changing the title of the cultural relics on display as "Shaanxi's Ancient Civilization".

While demonstrating the great achievements of Shaanxi's ancient culture and their contribution to the development of ancient Chinese civilization, many cultural relics are being displayed for the first time. They include the green-face tomb figure and bronze crane.

With a collection of more than 370,000 cultural relics, the museum which boasts modern multimedia technology receives more than 600,000 visitors each year, standing head and shoulders above museums of its kind in the country.

Located in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, Shaanxi is one of the birthplaces of the Chinese nation. There, early Chinese settlers developed a great civilization comparable with that of ancient Egypt, India and the area lying between Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

In a period of 1,100 years, 13 dynasties had Xi'an (which they called Chang'an) as their capital, leaving behind a rich cultural heritage in the province and turning it into a natural museum of history.

Many of the major cultural relics unexcavated are on display in the Shaanxi Provincial Museum, according to Ma Li, an official with the Shaanxi Provincial Bureau of Cultural Heritage.