China is being rebuilt at such a rapid pace that if can be difficult to find the “Old China” that we remember from our history books. But there is one place where you can find it: at the Kunming Museum:
On a cold Sunday afternoon, it’s nice to have a place like this to go and explore the history of this ancient land. Because of the abundance of copper, tin, and other metals in the mountains of Yunnan province, they were making bronze over 2200 years ago:
Blue and white porcelain originated in the Tang Dynasty (600-900AD) and was perfected in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The beautiful blue (cobalt) is still clear today in these Ming vases:
The elegance is only slightly dampened by the knowledge that virtually all of these vessels are crematory jars.
In contrast to the roughly painted jars, there are also finely detailed fan paintings:
The 2nd floor of the building houses a museum for the American Flying Tigers who volunteered to protect China during the Japanese invasion:
Unfortunately, it closed earlier than the rest of the museum:
One of the more interesting exhibits was a collection of pictures taken in Kunming about 100 years ago:
These black and white images illustrate just how much things have really changed:
But a few things haven’t changed. With different clothes, the water carrier in this picture probably wouldn’t draw much attention if he walked down the street today:
Neat — really like the old pictures. Glad to see you all are able to get out and visit some of the cultural sights in the area (and that there are actually are some!)
I agree! I am amazed they actually have historical/cultural items from ancient china in a museum. I wonder how many items have just been destroyed over the years…
the old photographs depict what about 90% of Americans think China still looks like.