As old as the nation, Liaoning Provincial Museum today is much more than a collection of antiquities. In its new avatar, which opened in 2004, the museum, located in downtown Shenyang, is a "21st-century public cultural space", as its posh brochure suggests.
The number of people in its expansive circular central hall, admiring the giant Shang period (c.16th century-11th century BC) bronze food container that forms the centerpiece, on a weekday easily exceeds 5,000.
That's only one of the 120,000-odd exhibits contained in the museum. The earliest of these is the skeletal fragments of the 280,000-year-old Jinniushan Man, who is, in fact, a woman. The latest displays are specimens of calligraphy, by acclaimed artists Zhang Ding, Mabai Shuyi and Wu Zaiyan, collected as recently as this year.
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