The well-presented Provincial Museum, on Mengcheng Lu provides sound evidence for Anhui's contributions to Chinese culture. A walk-through plaster cave leads on to a cast of the homo erectus cranium from Taodian in the south of the province, proudly displayed in an oversized glass case, while splinters of more immediate history emerge in a few Stone-Age items and an exceptional Shang bronze urn decorated with tiger and dragon motifs. Also interesting are the carved blocks taken from Han-dynasty mausoleums : Chinese-speakers might be able to decipher the comments about the Cao family (of Three Kingdoms' fame) incised into the bricks of their Bozhou tomb by construction labourers. Farther on, there’s a special exhibition of the "Four Scholastic Treasures" for which the province is famed: high quality inksticks, heavy carved ink stones, weasel-hair writing brushes and multicoloured papers. Make sure you press on to the last hall, where there are photographs, scale models and life-size reconstructions of Ming architecture from the Tunxi area comprising domestic buildings and monumentally carved stone memorial arches. 

Editor: Li Guixiang.