Ailey Museum

Located in the cultural street of Shandan County, it is a building with Chinese and Western styles. The layout plan is quadrangle, with a building area of 1126 square meters. Six exhibition rooms display the life of Louis airy (pictures and objects), the cultural relics donated by airy and the cultural relics unearthed from Shandan. In March 1980, Ali donated more than 5000 cultural relics of more than 20 categories collected in China for decades to the people of Shandan. In order to display these precious cultural relics, the Gansu people's government funded the construction of the museum in June 1982, and established it as a patriotic education base in Gansu Province and a national AA tourist attraction.

Ailey Museum

Located in Wenhua street of Shandan County, the Aili museum was built by Gansu Provincial People's Government in 1982 to collect and display the great and legendary life of Aili and the precious cultural relics donated by him. It was named after the surname of Aili. Chu Tunan, former vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, inscribed the name of the museum - "Aili donated cultural relics exhibition hall".

Development history

In March 1980, Ali donated more than 5000 cultural relics of more than 20 categories collected in China for decades to the people of Shandan. In order to display these precious cultural relics, the Gansu people's government funded the construction of the museum in June 1982, and established it as a patriotic education base in Gansu Province and a national AA tourist attraction. The first phase was completed and opened in June 1982, and the second phase was completed in September 1984. The layout plan is quadrangle, with a building area of 1126 square meters. Six exhibition rooms display the life of Louis airy (pictures and objects), the cultural relics donated by airy and the cultural relics unearthed from Shandan. In March 1986, the people's Government of Shandan County decided to establish the Shandan County Museum. The name of Shandan County Museum is juxtaposed with that of the cultural relics exhibition hall donated by Ai Li, with two Museum name plates and a set of institutions under the County Cultural Bureau.

architectural composition

Aili Museum, a newly-built cultural relics exhibition hall with national architectural style, is a brick and reinforced concrete structure. The main building has two floors, with hard mountain and single eaves. The second floor is equipped with front and rear veranda. The exhibition halls on both sides of the main building are symmetrical, and the plane layout is quadrangle. It covers an area of 4600 square meters and a building area of 1434 square meters. The Museum covers an area of 2400 square meters, with a construction area of 1200 square meters, including 920 square meters of exhibition hall. The museum collects and displays pictures, objects and deeds of Louis Ailey's life, as well as thousands of precious cultural relics donated by him.

Collection works

Over the past 30 years since its establishment, the number of cultural relics in the collection of Ailey Museum has reached more than 5300, which is rare in provincial and county-level museums, and there are many national fine cultural relics, which have attracted more and more attention. The museum also arranges and lists the precious cultural relics unearthed in the county, including painted pottery pots, basins, cups, bronze Buddha statues, etc.

There are six exhibition halls in the museum. In one exhibition hall, there are 109 objects, works and other cultural relics and 231 photos of Louis ely. From hall 2 to hall 5, there are 980 pieces of cultural relics donated by Louis airy. There are 71 pictures of Shandan Great Wall on display in the sixth hall. 105 cultural relics and specimens were unearthed from Shandan.

The collection is divided into two parts

1、 It is a collection of 4062 cultural relics donated by Louis Ailey, including Neolithic pottery, stone tools, three generations of bronzes, Qing Dynasty porcelain, trinkets and commemorative relics.

2、 The unearthed cultural relics in Shandan include Machang type, Siba type painted pottery and stone tools, as well as water and land paintings, which are the largest number of calligraphy and painting and other cultural relics. At present, there are 5091 cultural relics in the collection.

Honors

In 2008, the exhibition hall, as the second batch of red tourist attractions in China, was opened free of charge and became an important window for the county to publicize and promote cultural exchanges. Since its opening, the museum has received more than 1 million visitors from home and abroad, including government officials from more than 60 countries, non-governmental friendly organizations and officials from relevant United Nations organizations. In 1995, the museum was identified as a provincial patriotism education base by Gansu provincial Party committee; in 2006, it was identified as an advanced collective of cultural infrastructure management by the Ministry of culture; in 2010, it was identified as a party history education base of Gansu Province.

Function value

Shandan County, Gansu Province, with the help of tourism development, does a good job in the exhibition and development of cultural relics in the museum collection. Shandan County is located in the middle part of the Qianli Hexi Corridor, a must pass of the ancient Silk Road, with rich cultural tourism resources. The county will combine the protection and development of cultural relics with the tourism industry, and develop five series of tourism souvenirs with distinctive brands, such as bronze ware, ancient calligraphy and painting, jade ware, porcelain, bamboo and wood ware. In particular, tourism souvenirs such as Hu Teng dance bronze man, four Xi dolls, Tiantian Yixiang military script, plum blossom singing volume, etc., are widely welcomed and become an important carrier and window of tourism culture. At present, more than 20000 copies of cultural relics are produced and sold annually, with an annual output value of more than 400000 yuan. "Now people who come to Shandan to visit the great wall of the Han and Ming Dynasties, appreciate the Danxia landform, and visit the military Horse Park, all have to go to the museum to see the precious cultural relics."

Cultural relics protection

Shandan County is located in the middle of Hexi Corridor in Gansu Province, adjacent to Wuwei in the East, Zhangye in the west, Qinghai in the South and Inner Mongolia in the north, with a total area of 5402 square kilometers and a total population of 200000. It has a vast territory, beautiful mountains and rivers, rich natural resources and a long history. As early as the Western Han Dynasty, it was an important town on the Silk Road and a must pass from Lanzhou to Dunhuang. The county seat is close to the 312 national highway. The Lanxin railway and 312 national highway run through the whole county. There are five 181 km provincial highways and eight local highways leading to the counties, townships and junmachang District, forming a traffic network extending in all directions. The county has complete communication facilities, and modern means of communication have been widely used.

There are many cultural heritages and rich tourism resources here. Not only is it located in the throat of the ancient Silk Road, since the Western Han Dynasty, the royal family has stationed troops here to raise horses, which is a military stronghold of ancient and modern times, but also it is well-known at home and abroad for its founding of the joint venture in 1940s by Louis Ailey, an old friend of the Chinese people and a famous social activist in New Zealand. Moreover, it has a lot of precious history and culture It is famous for its heritage and unique natural landscape. There are 155 cultural relics and historic sites in the territory (141 are listed as provincial and county-level protection units). Among them, the most well preserved historical sites in the country, the great wall of the Han and Ming Dynasties, which is regarded as the "open-air museum" by experts, the sand field ruins of the West Route Army in the 1930s, and the 35 meter high Shandan Great Buddha Temple, which is regarded as the "No.1 Buddha in the world" by Buddhist circles at home and abroad, are the most attractive religious resorts. At the same time, Shandan junmachang prairie and Yanzhishan Forest Park are natural scenery tourist resorts with vast area, unique scenery and full of magical legends, which are rare for summer vacation and holiday tourism. In addition, more than 5000 historical relics on display in the former residence of Ai Li, the mausoleum of Ai Li and He Ke, the Peili library and the exhibition hall of Ai Li donated cultural relics in Shandan County are also highly ornamental. In addition, the production of more than 270 kinds of tourist souvenirs and local snacks with unique flavor, including ten series of Shandan brand paintings, ceramics, cultural relic reproduction, root carving, stone carving, folk art paper-cut, which have won the national and provincial tourism product awards, constitute the basis and support for the development of Shandan tourism industry, and create the advantages for the vigorous development of Shandan tourism economy.

Personage introduction

Louis Ailey (1897.12-1987.12) was a great internationalist and an outstanding New Zealand social activist.

Since 1927, China has closely linked its own cause with the destiny of the Chinese people and strived for it. In 1944, Aili founded the Peili technical school in Shandan County, Gansu Province, which is a part-time work and part-time study school. Ali lived with the local people for nearly 10 years and established deep feelings. After he moved to Beijing in 1953, he regarded Shandan as his second hometown and visited it many times. In order to help the people of Shandan understand the origin and development of society, understand our past, today and future

In the future, in order to achieve the goal of realizing the four modernizations as soon as possible, and to make Shandan a tourist stop on the Silk Road, he decided in March 1980 to donate the cultural relics collected in China for decades to the people of Shandan County. In the same year, he delivered more than 4000 cultural relics to Shandan.

On his 85th birthday in 1982, the Beijing Municipal Government awarded him the title of "honorary citizen". In 1985, Gansu Provincial Government awarded him the title of "honorary citizen". When he died in December 1987, Deng Xiaoping wrote an inscription for him: the great internationalist fighter is immortal.

Visit information

The museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday and closed on Monday.

Visiting time: 8:00-12:00 a.m. and 14:00-18:30 p.m. in summer. Winter is 8:00-12:00 a.m. and 14:00-17:30 p.m.

Address: No.3 Wenhua street, Shandan County, Gansu Province.

Post code: 734100

Address: Shanshan, Gansu Province

Chinese PinYin : Ai Li Bo Wu Guan