Mr Viral
Not far from northwestern China’s famed Terracotta Warriors, bulldozers and construction crews broke ground to expand Xi’an’s Xianyang International Airport in 2020 — and nearly crushed another major archaeological find.
Beneath a planned new terminal lay 28 terracotta musicians, sealed in a tomb for more than 1,500 years, frozen mid-performance with their instruments still in hand and formation intact.
Dating to the Sixteen Kingdoms period (304–439), they were part of a discovery that included more than 4,000 tombs and 20,000 artifacts. While most of the artifacts were moved to storage, a few, including the musicians, were selected for display.
The collection now anchors a new museum built into the airport’s Terminal 5.
Featuring over 100 objects spanning more than 2,000 years, the museum draws from multiple phases of the airport’s construction. In its first month after opening on Feb. 26, the free exhibit welcomed more than 45,000 visitors — both ticketed passengers and the general public — averaging about 1,500 a day. A full walkthrough takes about 15 to 30 minutes.
“In all the airports around the world, none can do what we’ve done — tell a 2,000-year story through archaeological discoveries made right beneath the runways,” said Chen Yao, director of the China West Airport Group Museum of Heritage project.
“With today’s smart systems, check-in and security take less than half an hour, which leaves time for a visit,” said Chen.
While still limited in scope and scale compared to traditional galleries, the airport museum marks a rare decision: to make room for the past. As urban expansion continues across China, experts see it as a model others may choose to follow.
Ground zero below
Xi’an has always been built on layers. Once the capital of 13 dynasties, including the prosperous Tang Empire (618–907), the city today sits atop more than 49,000 registered cultural heritage sites — among them, 270 under national-level protection and three recognized by UNESCO.
It’s why nearly every major project here, from subway lines to shopping malls, peels back another layer of the past, often bringing construction to a temporary halt.
None more so than Xi’an Xianyang International Airport, located in open terrain northwest of the city center. The site sits atop an ancient floodplain once used as a burial ground for royals and elites.
“From the 1980s, generations of archaeologists have been working continuously on this one massive infrastructure project. Every round of the airport’s expansion uncovered important archaeological finds,” Li Ming, an expert who has worked on the site since 1999, told Sixth Tone.
Between 1986 and 1990, construction of the first terminal uncovered more than 185 tombs. A second wave followed in 2009–2012, when work on Terminals 2 and 3 revealed over 400 more.
And in 2020, seven months into building Terminal 5, the archaeology team announced the discovery of several thousand new tombs, quickly making headlines across Chinese social media.
Li, who led the excavation, had seen it coming. “The airport developers asked whether we could build a museum based on on-site discoveries to highlight both the airport’s cultural value and the city’s heritage,” he recalled.
The idea took shape slowly, through several rounds of discussions and planning. Today, a Tang-style pavilion, built from aluminum to mimic traditional wooden architecture, sits on the mezzanine above Terminal 5’s departure hall, greeting travelers and museumgoers alike.
Chen Yao, the museum’s director, said the team initially explored high-tech options, including digital displays and even AI-driven experiences. But they ultimately decided to keep the focus on the objects themselves.
“What is a museum really for?” she said. “It’s the artifact itself. Only an object that has been tempered by time can carry the kind of aura that mechanical reproduction can never replicate. Only authentic relics can truly move people. So we shut down all the other plans.”
Making space
From the museum’s layout to its look, that decision shaped everything.
The structure’s Tang-era architecture nods to the period when Xi’an, then called Chang’an, or “long-lasting peace,” served as the imperial capital. Inside, the exhibition is divided into two galleries: one permanent, one rotating, both designed to keep the focus on the objects themselves.
“We wanted travelers to get an instant sense of the depth of Chang’an’s culture,” Li said, adding that the museum’s roof replicates the triple-eaved design of the Tang dynasty’s main imperial hall, where emperors held court, issued decrees, and received foreign envoys.
Inside, the main hall features 121 artifacts unearthed during airport construction, including tea sets, wine vessels, and ritual objects. A smaller rotating gallery showcases one standout piece from other local museums every few months.
“Most of the artifacts were selected by me, and unearthed by my own hands,” Li said. “We had to strike a balance between different construction phases, historical periods, object types, and materials, while also considering their aesthetic and social value.”
Its current centerpiece is the Qin Gong Bo, a bronze bell dating to the Spring and Autumn Period (770–476 BC) and classified as a national first-class cultural relic.
“Most excavated artifacts are never seen by the public,” Li said. “Without this museum, they may have remained in storage forever.”
Li believes the best way to preserve cultural relics is often to leave them untouched. But in Xi’an, that’s rarely possible. Construction is constant, and the ground is full of history.
“Infrastructure development and heritage preservation have always been at odds with each other,” he said. “And Xi’an is just a particularly extreme example. There simply is no ideal site near the city that’s geographically suitable for an airport and also free of cultural relics. Such a place doesn’t exist.”
“Our goal is to minimize the destruction of underground cultural heritage as much as possible while still allowing for economic development,” he added.
In 2013, while overseeing work on the airport’s surrounding urban zone, Li’s team uncovered the tomb of Shangguan Wan’er (664–710) — one of the most powerful female officials in Chinese history and the right hand of Empress Wu Zetian.
The find came during the construction of a new road. Instead of removing it, local authorities rerouted the road and built a memorial park around the site. “The redesign cost more,” Li said. “But the result was a cultural landmark that will last for decades, maybe centuries, or even forever.”
Looking ahead, the airport museum plans to launch a line of themed merchandise, a small step toward building a sustainable cultural brand.
Li and other experts are also working on building a national database of known tombs, a long-term project slowed by fragmented excavations and uneven coordination. But for him, making it matter to the public is the harder task.
“An archaeologist who finishes a dig and publishes the results is merely competent,” he said. “What matters is translating that work into something the public can understand — something that speaks to everyday people.”
Editor: Apurva.
(Header image: Visuals from Weibo and VCG, reedited by Sixth Tone)
