Explore the region
About Shijiahe Site Museum
The site cluster covers about 8 square kilometres and links more than 40 separate find-spots, with a main span from roughly 5,900 to 3,800 years ago. The National Cultural Heritage Administration describes it as the longest-lasting, largest and highest-ranking prehistoric urban settlement cluster in the middle Yangtze, and its walled city enclosed some 3.485 million square metres. In December 2023 the administration's project on the origins of Chinese civilisation placed Shijiahe in the second stage of the era of ancient states, and the Shijiahe culture named after the site is treated as a source of later Chu culture.
The museum was inaugurated on 18 May 2026, International Museum Day, and opened to the public the following day. Its building incorporates the jade-phoenix motif found at the site, and its 6,100 square metres of exhibition space are divided into six areas: a prologue hall, the site in time and space, the grand ancient city, the shamanic ritual centre, the ancient state, and the archaeological history of the site. The core display, 'Light of the Yangtze, Source of Civilisation', brings together more than 800 stone, pottery and jade objects and uses augmented-reality reconstructions, digital sand tables and interactive elements to set out the development of the culture.
What to look for
- The coiled jade phoenix from Shijiahe, an object about 4,200 years old known as 'China's first phoenix'; the piece in the gallery is captioned as a replica
- The phoenix form suspended under the dome of the museum's entrance hall
- Jade pieces including a 'divine human' head and a conjoined double-figure jade jue ornament
- The galleries' account of the walled city, whose circuit enclosed about 3.485 million square metres
- The Sanfangwan site nearby, a large specialised pottery workshop in the south-west of the ancient city whose surviving sherds, mostly red pottery cups, are estimated at more than two million
Location & getting there
Getting to Shijiahe Site Museum
Confirm the venue or campus, reservation channel and exhibition calendar. A museum name may cover more than one building.
- Search for 石家河遗址博物馆 with 天门市（省直管县级市） and 市域.
Find Shijiahe Site Museum
石家河遗址博物馆 · 市域
No reliable map pin yet: search by the Chinese name.
Sources & visit information
The linked sources support the identity and background described in this introduction. Opening hours, admission, activity availability and exact arrival arrangements have not been comprehensively checked. Confirm current visitor information with the venue; the original catalogue locality and editorial review flag are retained.