Qualla: Western Zhou Yan State Capital Museum

Western Zhou Yan State Capital Museum: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit PENG Yanan (Neo-Jay/鸟甲), CC BY-SA 3.0. Three thousand years before Beijing became the capital of modern China, a walled city already stood in its southwestern outskirts. The settlement at Liulihe, in what is now Fangshan District, served as the capital of the State of Yan -- a vassal kingdom of the Western Zhou dynasty. When archaeologists discovered the site in 1962, they unearthed engraved bronze ceremonial vessels, entombed chariots, weapons, and ceramics that pushed the known history of urban life in the Beijing region back a full millennium. The find was later ranked among the 100 major archaeological discoveries of 20th-century China.

Image: PENG Yanan (Neo-Jay/鸟甲) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Western Zhou Yan State Capital Museum: The Walled City

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit S M Lee, Public domain. The ancient capital at Liulihe measured 3.5 kilometres from east to west and 1.5 kilometres from north to south, covering an area of 5.25 square kilometres -- a substantial city by the standards of any era, and enormous for a vassal state of the Western Zhou. A moat two metres de...

Image: S M Lee | Public domain

Western Zhou Yan State Capital Museum: Bronze, Chariot, and Covenant

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 霧島聖, CC BY-SA 4.0. The artifacts recovered from Liulihe include bronze ceremonial ware inscribed with texts that memorialize exchanges between the Yan rulers and the kings of the Zhou dynasty -- tangible records of the feudal relationship that bound vassal to sovereign. Bronze libation vessels used...

Image: 霧島聖 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Western Zhou Yan State Capital Museum: Reading the Ground

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit S M Lee, Public domain. The Western Zhou Yan State Capital Museum opened on 21 August 1995, built directly atop the archaeological site it interprets. The museum complex occupies 18,000 square metres, with a main exhibition hall of 3,000 square metres divided into seven galleries. The Hall of Bronze Cer...

Image: S M Lee | Public domain