Xuzhou is a major city in east China's Jiangsu province with a time-honored history and splendid culture. People can find a lot about the past of the city by visiting the Xuzhou Museum where many precious cultural relics are housed.

Opened in August 1960, the museum is now also the city's Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Gallery of Stone Reliefs on Ancient Chinese Tombs and Shrines from Han Dynasty. As a national first-rate museum and a national AAAA tourist destination among many other honors, the museum has done a lot in excavating, protecting, exhibiting, collecting and studying cultural relics.

The museum boasts a collection of 27,850 pieces and sets of cultural relics, which include jade ware, gold and silver ware, bronze and iron ware, ceramic ware, imperial seals, calligraphy and painting works, and stone reliefs on ancient Chinese tombs and shrines from Han Dynasty. Among them, many represent the highest level of their kinds in China. The collection of cultural relics from the Neolithic Age, the Han Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty is rich and outstanding, with the ones from the Han Dynasty being the biggest feature.

Following are some of the most precious collections of the museum. 

Name：Earthenware dancing figures and musicians

Time：【Western Han dynasty】

Size：Height : 47-49 cm

Source：Excavated at the tomb of the king of Chu at Tuolanshan in 1989-1990

Those exquisite dancers and musician figures found at Tuolanshan provide a fascinating insight into the rich, colorful life of the Han. This group consists of 4 dancers in different postures and musicians. The performance seems to be a popular Chu dance of the period that featured long waving sleeves and swaying movements. The realistic depiction of se(an ancient Chinese musical instrument) provides important information for the study of Han musical instruments. Similar earthenware dancers and musicians were also found in the entertainment hall in the auxiliary complex of the tomb at Beidongshan.