Weekend wander in the eternal city

The quietness of the Stele Forest only made us believe that Xi'an, the city that was China's national capital for the longest time, is such a treasure trove that most of its greatest attractions lie still underexplored. The people have also protected their city so well that many sites that were built more than a millennium ago are still intact.

Other lesser known but worthy destinations during our short weekend trip included two permanent exhibitions at the Shaanxi History Museum. Locals joke that wherever someone digs the earth in Xi'an, as long as they dig deep enough, they will find some cultural relics. One of these exhibitions provides evidence of that very joke.

Police at a station in Hejia village in southern Xi'an wanted to build a new office in its compound. When workers dug 80 centimeters into the ground in October 1970, they came upon a vault. Inside the vault were two large ceramic pots and a smaller silver pot, which were filled with more than 1,000 artifacts made of gold, silver, jade and valuable gems.

One of the exhibitions, titled Treasures from Hejia Village, includes 65 sets of these artistic and delicate artifacts. There is still no agreement over the identity of their owner, who collected coins throughout China's dynasties up until the Tang era, as well as those from Persia, Japan, Greece and the Eastern Roman Empire.