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Qinglong discoveries accentuate city’s past
THE much-awaited exhibition “Archeological Discoveries from the Historical Port of Qinglong Town in Shanghai” is finally open to the public.
The exhibit at Shanghai Museum which features archeological findings from ancient Qinglong Town in suburban Shanghai’s Qingpu District washes away the notion that Shanghai was just a sleepy fishing village before opening its port to the world in 1843.
“The exhibition includes over 100 objects unearthed from the historical site in Qinglong Town that show an urban culture, busy port and religious life during the Tang (AD 618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties,” says Yang Zhigang, director of Shanghai Museum.
Located in today’s Baihe Town in Qingpu, the ancient Qinglong came into being in the fifth year of Tianbao Reign of the Tang Dynasty.
Excavation work started last year by a team of experts from Shanghai Museum suggests the ancient Qinglong Town was a busy trading hub and a shipping center during the Tang and Song dynasties, stretching the city’s urban history way back than what is generally accepted.
The team’s most important find is the foundation structure of the historic Longping Temple Pagoda, which was built in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). It had an underground vault containing numerous cultural relics.
The exhibition highlights these items found inside the temple under the title “Uncovered Pagoda of Longping Temple.”
“The pagoda was a religious site and also a lighthouse for merchant fleets sailing on the ancient Wusong River (today’s Suzhou Creek) to and from the sea,” says Chen Jie, dean of the Archeological Department of museum.
Glorious past
The discovery of the pagoda’s foundation is just one part of the whole excavation work that was launched in 2010 with the purpose of learning more about ancient Qinglong — a town that had only been known through mentions in the historical archives.
The town had three pagodas, seven towers, 13 temples, 22 bridges and 36 neighborhoods, all suggesting its status as a prosperous urban center.
With the vicissitudes of time, most traces of these structures vanished long ago, but the foundation of the pagoda offers the most credible evidence of its glorious past.
More than 6,000 restorable porcelain objects and about 100,000 shards were traced to well-known kilns in Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces. Similar porcelains from these kilns have also been found in ancient Korea and Japan.
The Shanghai Museum exhibition also showcases a cluster of green-glazed, black-glazed, bluish white-glazed and celadon utensils excavated from ancient Qinglong Town.
“They were apparently shipped to Qinglong first and then transferred abroad,” Chen says. “This proves Shanghai was a major port for foreign trade in the Tang Dynasty, as well as a critical stop along the ancient Maritime Silk Road.”
The exhibition is divided into three parts — “A Gigantic Town in Southeast China,” “Uncovered Pagoda of Longping Temple” and “Cultural Relics from the Maritime Silk Road.”
‘Archeological Discoveries from the Historical Port of Qinglong Town in Shanghai’
Date: Through May 31, 9am-4pm
Venue: Shanghai Museum
Address: 201 People’s Ave
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