Nanjing Museum

Listen for a moment. Under the plane trees of Zhongshan East Road, traffic hums, and then it fades as you walk through the gate. The plaza opens wide and pale in front of you. At its far end, a great wooden-style hall sits low and heavy under a sweeping roof of dark tiles. The air is calmer here. You are standing in front of one of the oldest modern museums in China, the Nanjing Museum.

The story begins in 1933. Nanjing was then the capital of the Republic of China, and a group of scholars wanted a national museum to rival the great collections of Europe. The educator Cai Yuanpei was among its founders. They set up a preparatory office for what they called the National Central Museum. It was an ambitious idea for a young republic that had very little money and a great deal of uncertainty ahead.

Now look up at that roof. It does not copy the Forbidden City in Beijing. Instead, it follows the older style of the Liao dynasty, a northern dynasty from about a thousand years ago. The famous architectural historian Liang Sicheng was involved in shaping the design. He studied ancient timber temples across northern China, and he wanted a building that showed Chinese architecture at its most structural and honest. The deep eaves and chunky brackets come from that research.

Here is something most visitors miss. The hall in front of you is not standing where it originally stood... at least, not at the same height. During the major expansion completed in 2013, engineers raised the entire old hall by about three metres. They lifted it so that it would no longer sit below the level of the busy road outside. A whole historic building, moved upward, and the visitors walking in today rarely notice.

The early years were hard. When war with Japan arrived in the 1930s, staff packed thousands of crates of treasures and carried them west, away from the fighting. Later, as the civil war ended in the late 1940s, part of the collection was shipped across the sea to Taiwan. Many of those objects are now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. So the story of this museum continues in two places, on both sides of the strait.

Today the museum holds more than four hundred thousand objects. That number is hard to picture. The collection covers the full sweep of history in this region, from Stone Age tools to modern paintings. Jiangsu Province, around you, has been a centre of farming, trade and learning for thousands of years. Its tombs, kilns and workshops have given this museum objects of extraordinary quality, and the galleries are organised so you can follow that long thread.

The Historical Hall is the heart of the visit. Inside, look for the jade burial suits from the Han dynasty, which ruled China around two thousand years ago. Princes were buried in suits made of hundreds of small jade plates, joined with metal thread. People believed jade could protect the body. Standing close, you can see the tiny holes drilled at each corner, and imagine the patience of the craftsmen who worked them.

Look also for a brick relief from a Southern Dynasties tomb near Nanjing. It shows the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, a group of poets and thinkers from the third century who chose wine, music and conversation over a career at court. The figures sit under trees, each one relaxed and a little eccentric. The image was built from many separate bricks, each one moulded with a part of the scene, then fitted together like a puzzle.

And then there is gold. A small gold beast from the Western Han dynasty is one of the museum's most loved treasures. It is cast as a crouching animal, solid and surprisingly heavy for its size. Next to it, the porcelain galleries show the cool blues and soft whites of later dynasties. Take your time with the glaze. Under the gallery lights, the surface looks almost wet, as if the potter has only just finished.

Now for a surprise of a different kind. Go down into the Republic of China Hall, and you leave the glass cases behind. Here the museum has recreated a street from the 1930s and 1940s, the years when Nanjing was the capital. There are shopfronts, old signs, a post office and small cafés. Some shops actually sell snacks and souvenirs. The light is warm and low, and it feels like walking into an old film set.

The modern parts of the museum are worth noticing too. The expansion added several new halls, including spaces for art, special exhibitions, digital displays and intangible cultural heritage. In that last hall, you may see demonstrations of traditional crafts, such as Kunqu opera, one of China's oldest stage forms, or delicate embroidery. The architect Cheng Taining led the expansion. He kept the new buildings low and quiet, so the old hall still holds the centre of the plaza.

Step back outside for a wider view of the neighbourhood. Just to the east is Zhongshan Gate, part of the great Ming dynasty city wall, built about six hundred years ago when Nanjing was the imperial capital. Beyond the wall rises Purple Mountain, with its forests, tombs and memorials. The museum sits on a line between the old walled city and those green hills. The location was chosen with care, in the heart of the capital's ceremonial landscape.

Before you leave, stand once more in the plaza and look at the old hall. Notice the shadows under the deep eaves, the way the brackets catch the light, and the people moving slowly up the steps. Behind those doors are thousands of years of objects that once travelled, hid and returned. Listen again to the traffic beyond the gate... and carry a little of this quiet with you as you walk back under the plane trees.