Jinsha Museum (February 21st)

On Saturday, three people from the apartments (Emma, Laura and myself) and most of the people in the dorms met to go to Jinsha museum, where we were to learn about the Shu people who lived in the Chengdu area about 3000 years ago. At 9 am, Emma, Laura and I were picked up by the tour bus down the street from our apartments. Most of the other people in the apartments had either already been there, no interest in going, or went out clubbing the night before so they didn’t want to get up that early. The bus then drove to the dorms to pick up those students. We arrived at the museum close to 10 am. Wentao bought our tickets and we went inside the museum.

Bus ride there


Buying tickets

The Shu symbol

Those red things are all lanterns



The Shu symbol

Close up




Shortly thereafter, we were met by an English-speaking tour guide. The artifacts were pretty and interesting. They had all kinds of jewelry, tools, musical instruments, stones, and pottery. The archaeologists even found elephant tusks, implying that elephants used to live in the Chengdu area 3000 years ago. However, our tour guide explained everything really quickly and walked through the museum extremely fast, so I missed a lot of what she was saying about the artifacts and the people.

Huge roots of a tree under our feet



Excavation sites























"Animals" (I guess to represent the animals that used to live here)










A canoe!


Pottery and such







The famous gold mask in the background


Close up


The picture that represents the Shu culture. It supposed to be the sun with four birds flying around it.

More artifacts






I'm not exactly sure why a lot of the statues have their hands behind their backs. Maybe it's a form of respect....







These are supposed to be frongs, which I believe were lucky to the Shu people.





Turtle shells















Musical instruments (I don't know how they're played)








Elephant tusks


The Shu symbol (on the ceiling)

and on the ground

Graves of Shu people

The picture standing up is what it looked like when the archaelogists first found the graves



















Wood (I think it's been deformed by water)




Horns





Pottery remains


After our tour, some of us browsed through the souvenir shop waiting for a 3-D movie about the Shu people to begin. The Chinese movie, which was animated and unrealistic, was nonetheless still fun to watch. We had 3-D glasses, so everything stood out and even the seats had something in them to make them move. For instance, when the movie had snakes slithering across the ground, I could feel something in the chair poking my butt. When the Shu people threw a spear at their enemies, the back of my chair poked me. And when it rained, there was soap in the theater that felt like rain. It was a cute movie meant mainly for children.

Waiting for the movie to start


After our museum trip, the bus took us back to the school and apartments. Laura and I got off the bus at the school because we wanted to go eat lunch at a bakery nearby (Leanna’s). Brian (one of my classmates) and his wife, Giovanna, joined us. The four of us ordered hamburgers. I thought the hamburger was probably one of the best hamburgers I had ever eaten, but that might also be due to the fact that I was craving one and that I hadn’t had one in a long time. Around 2 or 3 pm, Laura and I then took the city bus back to our apartments. I was so tired that I took a nap for an hour or so. Once I woke up, Emma, Bjoernar and I walked to Tech Tower (a huge store that’s about 6 or 7stories tall with just electronics) because Emma wanted to buy an electronic dictionary and I just wanted to check it out. Unfortunately by the time we arrived (which was about 6 pm), Tech Tower was just closing. It was ridiculous because the entrance to Tech Tower was just filled with people leaving the store. Nobody that wanted to enter Tech Tower was able to because of the massive amounts of people that were leaving it. We tried walking to another entrance, but it was closed. Only the exit was open. Instead, we decided to go to Trust Mart, a grocery store, and buy groceries. From there, we walked back to our apartments and I met up with Magnus and Marit. The three of us walked to a Chinese restaurant close by to pick up some dinner. Emma and Bjoernar met us there and once our food was ready (I ordered beef and vegetable noodles), we walked back to the 9th floor apartment. The five of us ate in the living room while listening to music and talking. More people, such as Caitlin, Laura and Kailey, joined us. Around 11 pm, a couple of us (Caitlin, Emma, Kailey, Marit, Bjoernar, Magnus, and I) took taxis to Shamrock (a club/bar) where they were having a Mardi Gras celebration. Most of the people in Shamrock were foreigners. Marit met up with her New Zealand and Australian friends. The rest of us danced a couple of times, but I didn’t think it was that exciting because I felt like I was the one in charge of looking after the bags and I was left alone a few times while everyone went to go buy drinks at the bar or do whatever. I left at 1 am and took a taxi back home. When I arrived back home, I surfed the internet and talked to Joey for a while.