Ancient Egypt Meeting with Ancient Shu—A Carnival of Culture and Chinese New Year
Release Time: 2017-11-02
The Ninth Chengdu Jinsha Sun Festival will be held in Chengdu Jinsha Site Museum from Jan. 23 to Feb. 12, 2017. This festival is sponsored by Chengdu Culture, Radio and TV, Press and Publication Bureau, People’s Government of Jinniu District, and People’s Government of Qingyang District, and undertaken by Chengdu Jinsha Site Museum, the Culture, Tourism, Sports, Radio and TV, Press and Publication Bureau of Jinniu District, and the Culture, Sports, Radio and TV, Tourism Bureau of Qingyang District. At this festival visitors can admire ancient Egypt’s mythology and history, the garden’s romance on the bank of the Nile, ancient Shu’s mystery and flourishing, and scenes of a memorial ceremony attended by thousands of people and of shows full of the local’s cultures and customs.
Explore Ancient Egypt and the World of Pharaohs and Deities
Ancient Egypt is one of the four cradles of civilization. And some rulers’ names of this great empire are still familiar to today’s people, such like Khufu who commissioned the Great Pyramid of Giza, Tutankhamun whose “curse of the pharaohs” still persists, Ramesses II whose campaigns, battles and love story with his wife makes him the greatest ruler of Egyptian Empire, and Cleopatra, a queen of surpassing beauty enchanting Caesar and Antony. The Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Great Sphinx of Giza, the majestic royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings, the large Luxor Temple, well-preserved mummies after several thousand years, the Book of the Dead with magic spells, mysterious pictograms and ancient Egyptian mythology with complex and vast systems, all of which fascinate many experts, scholars and ordinary people who want to decipher Pharaoh s’ codes.
The exhibition with the theme of “Ancient Egypt: the World of Pharaohs and Deities” will open on January 23 with the opening of the Sun Festival. 155 sets of ancient Egyptian relics selected from the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada will be displayed, including mummies, the Book of the Dead, the sculpture of Cleopatra, bronze statues, etc. The three sections of this exhibition feature “Colorful Life”, “The Immortality of Pharaohs”, and “The Guardian of Deities” as themes respectively. Exposed to the information conveyed by huge murals, rich written materials and multimedia, visitors can learn about the life, pharaoh, military, religion and traditions of the funeral in ancient Egypt in detail, accessing to the world of pharaohs and deities.
In addition, there are lantern groups on display, telling the stories of nine best known pharaohs in the history of the ancient Egypt on the sunken square outside of the exhibition hall. And a special picture display named “Mysteries of Egypt” is also held by the Modi River to decipher the code of ancient Egypt.
Ancient Shu Meeting with Ancient Egypt, Civilizations’ Glory Shining In Jinsha
The incessantly rolling Nile gave birth to the ancient Egyptian civilization in Africa. It is the same case with the Minjiang River, which gave birth to the ancient Shu civilization in Sichuan Basin also around thirty degrees north latitude. Despite quite different times and spaces, they share some striking similarities with each other. The sun worship can be found in the Karnak Temple Complex in ancient Egypt and on the gold leaf with the sun bird pattern in Jinsha; the gold worship can be found in both civilizations’ relics, like the Tutankhamun gold mask and the gold mask with a mysterious smile in ancient Shu; and the animal worship can also be found in both civilizations.
On the Sun Festival traditional Chinese lanterns will show the integration of both civilizations, shining the whole exhibition. There will be more than 40 large lantern groups, four extra large lantern groups of 15 meters in height and over 3000 tree decorations. The whole lantern park covers more than 4000m2. In this park visitors can enjoy lantern groups of both civilizations and of the Spring Festival, a wonderful world of light and shadow: Luxor Temple leading to the ancient Egypt world, Egyptian gods guarding the Sun Road, Harvest Goddess sowing seeds of richness, a sun anthem sung for prosperity of ancient Shu These great lanterns will help visitors explore more about the origin of human’s civilization.
Boating on the “Nile”, a Romantic Flower Sea of 2000m2
As the hottest spot in every year’s Sun Festival, this year the Jinsha flower market constructs a flower sea with over ten kinds of flowers like the hyacinth, tulip, begonia and viola tricolor, covering nearly 2000m2 altogether. A flower belt which symbolizes the Nile runs through the flower sea. Visitor can enjoy blooming flowers in daylight and the starry sky at night. And a stage in the shape of an ancient Egyptian solar ship is set up near the “Nile”, the flower sea. A series of fantastic shows like Egyptian duet dance and drum playing, and special performances related to the world intangible cultural heritage will be presented at the stage.
Three carved flower groups of different sizes form “the Pyramid fields”. Visitors can walk in the long corridor of the Egyptian temple built by a lantern group. Another lantern group shows Egyptian merchants riding camels to do business. The whole park looks like an ancient Egyptians’ paradise.
Happy Family Day in the Sun Festival
2017 Chengdu Jinsha Festival is also an ideal choice for family with kids if they want to spend the Spring Festival outside. There are many entertainment facilities specially designed for children. For example, they can have fun through child VR experience. And in food zones the whole family can enjoy various Sichuan traditional snacks and delicious Egyptian cuisine.
In addition, during this festival there will be 282 wonderful shows at the main stage and many other places in the park. Visitors can admire the ancient Egypt’s exotic traditions and customs from Egyptian teams’ performances, the ancient Shu’s mystery and prosperity from original singing and dancing shows, and authentic world intangible cultural heritages from traditional intangible folk cultural performances. The design of the main stage takes advantage of the lighting technology. The front part of the main stage is shrouded in the light shadow, creating fantastic ambience. As for other performance spots in the park, the children can interact with ancient Egyptians, ancient Shu people and cartoon puppies in the flash mob’s shows there.
Having Fun and Taking Ancient Egypt Back Home
Ancient civilization is so broad. Except the pyramid and pharaoh, what else can visitors learn of? There is a series of educational and social activities called “Explore the Mystery of Ancient Egypt” which tell ancient Egypt’s stories in vivid words and interesting games and create best memories for families on the festival. The interesting comics on the hand-painted family guidebooks are a great attraction for children and they can find valuable ancient Egyptian relics by following the clues on the treasure map. Furthermore, children can join in DIY activities with parents, like making jewelries, building small pyramids and writing in pictograms on Papyrus, a material similar to thick paper that was first used in ancient Egypt.
There are three selling-points at the entrance of the exhibition room, the entrance of the exhibition hall with Egyptian theme, and the flower street of Jinsha flower market respectively regarding the theme “Ancient Egypt: the World of Pharaohs and Deities”. Through interesting cultural and creative products like tattoo stickers with ancient Egyptian features, pharaohs’ masks and books about the culture of ancient Egypt, visitors can enjoy the beauty of the art inspired by cultures of ancient Egypt and Shu.
In order to benefit people with culture, the ticket price of the Jinsha Sun Festival 2017 is temporarily RMB 40 per person, which means people can visit all the gardens and exhibition halls of Jinsha Site Museum and enjoy many wonderful contents at half price.
More information about 2017 Chengdu Jinsha Sun Festival:
Dates: January 23-February 12, 2017
Opening Hours: 8:00-22:00
Address: No. 2 Jinshayizhi Road, Qingyang District, Chengdu, Sichuan
Tickets: RMB 40 per person
Contact us: 028-87303555
Getting here:
By bus
Visitors can take Bus No.7, Bus No.32, Bus No.82, Bus No.83, Bus No.84, Bus No.96, Bus No.100, Bus No.111, Bus No.123, Bus No.147, Bus No.163, Bus No.175, Bus No.209, Bus No.211, Bus No.705, Bus No.1043, etc.
By metro
Visitors can get off at Yipintianxia Station of Line 2 or Cultural Palace Station of Line 4
