Good morning ladies and gentlemen,

    Today, we will go to visit Hubei Provincial Museum. On the way to the museum, I'd like to show a present to express my warmest welcome to you. You may wonder what the present is. Well let me introduce it to you. The music you are going to listen to is the very gift. Now, please enjoy the music.

    Have you ever listened to the music? And what musical instrument is used to play the beautiful melody? That's the serial bells, a wonder in the world. Indeed a wonder in the world. Every year tourists from all over the world continuously come to visit them and appreciate the programs played by it. Each year they return with unforgettable memory.

    The building with red wall and green tiers before us is the very museum, Hubei Provincial Museum. Constructed in 1953, the museum is the center for collecting, studying, preserving and displaying historical and cultural relics in Hubei. More than 700,000 ancient relics are stored up in it. There is a collection of 100,000 books on history, archaeology, art etc. These relics provide precious material data for studying the development of history, culture, art, science and technology in ancient China.

    Situated in the middle reach of the Yangtze River, Hubei has a long history and rich land. As early as 2,000,000 years ago, our ancestors lived and worked here and gradually they began to create their own civilization. The relics unearthed from Zenghouyi Tomb are good proofs to the civilization. The relics displayed in the museum are most from the tomb. Serial bells are the most precious and greatest of them all.

    Are you familiar with the history of the serial bells?

    It is said that it is the oldest musical instrument kept in the world. You see, our ancestors already knew how to use music to enrich their lives so long ago.

    Luckily indeed, our archaeologists discovered it by accident and thus displayed the marvelous ancient civilization of Chu State in front us.

    In 1978, a soldier discovered a large tomb when building his house. It was really a great surprise to discover it at that time. Afterwards, archaeologists excavated these serial bells on the same spot. This was appraised to be the tomb of Zenghouyi. It was220 square meters, 20 metros deep, consisting of 4 tombs. The main coffin was made up of huge internal and external coffins. The man in it died at the age of 45. Those buried alive with the dead were all female, aged from 13 to 25. They were in 21 coffins.

    Besides the serial bells, more than 7,000 other historical cultural relics have been unearthed, such as bronze ware, ancient musical instrument, weapons, golden ware, jade ware, painted ware, woodenware, and bamboo ware. Most of them are unique art treasure and they were deliberately made.

    What is especially worth mentioning is the ancient musical instrument, such as serial bells, stone chimes, drums, 25-stringed plucked zither, and bamboo flute. They are totally 8 types, including 124 pieces. The entire musical instrument is placed perfectly among the bronze serial bells. They make the tomb look like an ancient concert hall.