Zhang Qian Memorial Hall 张骞纪念馆

About Zhang Qian Memorial Hall

The tomb it stands around is 张骞墓. The State Council listed it in the sixth batch of national key cultural relic sites, published on 9 June 2006 with the era given as 汉 and the address as Chenggu County. A Shaanxi provincial booking platform records that the tomb entered the preparatory list for the joint China-Central Asia Silk Road World Heritage nomination in April 2007, that the National Cultural Heritage Administration put it on the first Silk Road China-section nomination list in July 2012, and that it was formally inscribed on the World Heritage List in June 2014.

The mound faces south and is shaped like an inverted bucket. The federation page gives it as 19.5 m north-south by 16.6 m east-west and 4.26 m high, covering about 300 m², with two Han stone beasts known as 石虎 about 15 m in front. Four steles stand before it; one, carved in clerical script 汉博望侯张公骞墓, was erected in 1776 by the Qianlong-era Shaanxi governor 毕沅, and another was put up by the National Southwestern Associated University – the two pages used here date that stele to 1938 and to 1939 respectively.

The hall around it is a modern build. The federation page describes it as a cultural landscape with the tomb mound, the Han stone tigers, a double-faced stone stele, a Han-style gate tower and a Han-style hall: an east section laid out as three courtyards in left-right symmetry for reception, exhibition and the cemetery, and a west garden section showing the landforms, architecture, customs and culture of the Western Regions.

The provincial platform records that Chenggu County set up a 张骞墓文管所 in 1983 and renamed it 张骞纪念馆 in 1990, with 16 full-time protection staff. It lists a statue of 张骞 inside and, among the fittings, an ecological car park, star-rated toilets, a Han-style gate tower, an offering hall and side halls.

In 2017 the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese confirmed the hall as a 中国华侨国际文化交流基地. None of the sources used here describes the exhibition galleries or the collection, and the staff figure comes from an undated booking page and may since have changed.

What to look for

• 张骞墓, the mound the State Council listed nationally in 2006 and which was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2014.
• The pair of Han stone beasts known as 石虎, about 15 m in front of the mound.
• The four steles before the mound, among them the 1776 clerical-script stele reading 汉博望侯张公骞墓.
• The hall's east section, laid out as three courtyards in left-right symmetry, and the west garden section on the Western Regions.

Location & getting there

Getting to Zhang Qian Memorial Hall

Confirm the venue or campus, reservation channel and exhibition calendar. A museum name may cover more than one building.

• Search for 张骞纪念馆 with 汉中市 and 城固县.