It's Good to Be King

Another week; another weekend; another chance to take a day trip to a new place in the city. This week I finally got around to checking out the Museum of the Mausoleum of the Nanyue King, which is just across from the main gate of Yuexiu Park. Ready for a 100 word history lesson?

西汉南越王博物馆

It's the second century BCE. The Han Dynasty rules from its capital in Chang'an. Like other large Chinese dynasties, however, the Han have some difficulty controlling the far-off edges of the empire. In the south, throughout what is now Guangdong, Guangxi, and Yunnan provinces and northern Vietnam, the Nanyue Kingdom is ruled by five generations of the Zhao family. Zhao Mo is the second king of Nanyue and when he dies in 122 BCE, he gets buried in style. We're talking a suit of over 2,000 jade pieces sewn together with silk thread, jade carvings, bronze and pottery goods, a chariot, ten attendants and four concubines. The tomb was discovered in the 1980s by construction workers.

the excavated tomb

Okay, that's all the history I'm going to make you sit through. You can start paying attention again. I'm afraid my pictures are terrible because I forgot my camera and had to use my phone's tiny camera, but I have a guessing game for you and a bad joke for you to make up for it.

First: the guessing game. There is a lovely collection of 200 of these at the Museum (not from the tomb, just sharing exhibit space). So, who can tell me ... what are they?

Hint: you own one. It just looks different.

Now, the museum was quite nice, and looking at artifact after artifact after jade disk after incense burner is a grand tribute to the artistry of people in times long past. But, clearly, the best part of any museum is the children's area. There was a station to make your own rubbings!

Here's my coworker making a rubbing!

There was sadly no paper left in the bin, so we hunted through our purses like the female pack-rats we are for paper we could use. I, curses, had just cleaned out my purse, and all I could find was one sticky note and the receipt from my trip to the bank last week.

This reminds me of girl scouts.

In the gift shop was the usual assortment of jade, sandalwood, ceramics, kitschy playing cards, and not-so-handmade handicrafts. I bought some postcards. I've begun to think about what little trinkets I'll be taking back to my friends and family. Most of you are easy, but some of you are darn hard to shop for (I'm talking to you, Dad. If only I could find a Chinese plumb bob).

Did someone say jade?

Last, but not least:  a joke. If you laugh at it, you may be the first (cracks me up, though, which doesn't say much about my sense of humor...) What sound does a three-legged pot make when you hit it?

DING!