On Sundauy afternoon my friend and I went to the National Museum of China, located at the east side of Tiananmen Square. We visited one of the permanent exhibitions, Ancient China. According to the introduction from the website of National Museum of China:

It uses a large number of valuable cultural relics, and gives a complete picture of the long Chinese history from the prehistoric times to the late Qing Dynasty and shows in a comprehensive way the vitality and continuous evolution of Chinese civilization. It also demonstrates the historical process of building a multi-ethnic country by Chinese people from different ethnic groups, their splendid political, economic, and cultural achievements, and their contributions to human civilization.

We saw the most precious treasure of the museum: Houmuwu square cauldron (ding), which we have learnt from school textbooks.

The cauldron was excavated in 1939 in Henan Province, and made by an emperor in Shang Dynasty to carry out rituals for his mother. It is a rectangular vessel, with the upper side of 112 cm long and 79.2 cm wide. There are animal faces and one-legged dragon designs on the four edges with a base design of clouds and thunder. Houmuwu Ding reveals a high level of casting technique and artistry, represents the highest casting achievement of the Shang Dynasty, and is the most valuable collection in the museum, just like Mona Lisa Smile in the Louvre.

I have also seen a piece of exquisite painting copied from Dunhuang frescos, and it describes a story of magic deer, nine-color deer.

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful mountain, where lived a deer, with nine-color fur and snow-white antlers. One day, it rescued a man who was going to be drown in the river. The man was very appreciated its help and would like to do everything for the deer. But the deer ask nothing but not to divulge its place. For the deer, keeping its secret was the best repayment.

Then one day, the queen wanted the antlers of the magic deer due to her mysterious dream. Then the king post a big bonus to catch the nine-color deer. The man rescued by the deer got the information and thought that it was the best chance to get rich, totally forgetting his pledge to the deer. He told the king everything he knew. The king mobilized his troops immediately to the mysterious forest.

At the very time the deer was sleeping in the warm and bright sunshine. Its friend crow flew to the deer, woke it up and told the whole story. The crow asked the deer to run away. But there was no time. The deer then told the king what it knew about the man, who was ungrateful and breached his vows. Then the king was so angry about the man and asked his solder to put him into prison. The king also forbidden to catch the deer in the future. Then the deer and its friends lived happy-ever-after-forever.