Desert City Relics: Khara-Khoto Exhibition to Open In Shanghai
More than 100 relics from the ancient desert city of Khara-Khoto will go on display in Shanghai on Saturday. Most of the pieces have never left northwest China before.
The exhibition, called "The Never-Fading Khara-Khoto," opens at ALIGHT ROOM, a cultural venue on Fuxing Road M. in downtown Huangpu District. It runs through October 7.
The show brings together relics from the Western Xia (1038-1227) and Yuan (1279-1368) dynasties. Organizers describe it as the first exhibition to present the full history of the Khara-Khoto site using original artifacts, digital scanning and immersive projection together.
The exhibition is a joint project between Shanghai, north Inner Mongolia, as well as northwest Ningxia and Gansu.
Khara-Khoto was a garrison town on the Silk Road built by the Western Xia Dynasty and later used by the Yuan Dynasty. The desert eventually buried the city, and archeologists rediscovered its ruins in the early 20th century.
One highlight is a full-scale replica of Cave 29 from the Yulin Grottoes, a Western Xia Buddhist cave site in Gansu Province. High-precision scanning was used to recreate the cave's shape, wall paintings and sculptures.
The show also features a digital sand table of the Khara-Khoto ruins, built from 4K scans of the site. Projected images let visitors view the ancient city from above, as it might have looked when merchants and soldiers filled its streets.
A 180-degree dome theater shows the rise and fall of the city on a wraparound screen.
Other items on display include Western Xia manuscripts, Buddhist thangka paintings recovered from Khara-Khoto, and stone carvings from the Western Xia royal tombs.
Outside the main galleries, organizers built a recreation of a Silk Road trading market. It shows farming, handicrafts and inn life along the old trade route.
The venue also plans public lectures and workshops during the run of the show, along with videos and articles on its official WeChat account.
If you go
Exhibition: "The Never-Fading Khara-Khoto"
Date: Through October 7, daily from 10am to 6pm
Venue: ALIGHT ROOM
Address: 323 Fuxing Road M., Huangpu District 复兴中路323弄
Admission: Early-bird tickets are 29.9 yuan (US$4.4) for adults and 19.9 yuan for children. Regular-price tickets are 98 yuan for adults, and 39 yuan for children.
