Museum is a perfect place for Chinese learners to know more about the local culture. If the foreign learners come to study Mandarin Chinese in the city of Kunming, they must have visited Yunnan Provincial Museum, which is a comprehensive museum founded as early as in 1951. At present, there are nine departments in this museum, some of which are as follows. The storage department is responsible for collecting and protecting the collections while the exhibition department takes the responsibility of publicizing the exhibition of this museum.

For the research department, the main task is to do scientific research job. The appraisal department takes in charge of cultural relics’ identification and collection and the information department should edit the books and periodicals as well as collect the books and information about the cultural relics. In addition, the vision department and security section are also important sectors of the museum. At present, there are 75 staffs, among which the the proportion of senior professional and technical personnel accounting for about half of the number of staff and workers.

Since from the 1950s, Yunnan Provincial Museum has processed science archaeological excavation and investigation for more than one hundred times in the range of Yunnan province. Some of the foreign students who study in volunteer programs in China may have heard several major archaeological excavations with great influence. For example, scientists have processed four times of archaeological excavations in the tomb group in Shaizhai Mountain in Jinning from 1955 to 1960, making it the typical representative of bronze culture in Yunnan.

It enjoys the fame of “Shizhai Mountain Culture” or “Dian Culture” by the archaeology. In total, 50 tombs in Western Han Dynasty have been excavated in this tomb group, with more than four thousand pieces of unearthed cultural relics. The most important one should be the golden seal of the King of Dian Kingdom, which proved the truth recorded in Biographies of the Southwestern in Shih Chi.

In 1972, the excavation in Lijia Mountain tomb group made it another important base of Shizhai Mountain Culture. Those who study Mandarin online may be told that 27 ancient tombs are founded in this area, unearthing 1300 pieces of cultural relic in Han period. It further enriched the cultural connotation in Yunnan and the first group of bronze textile tools is the most representative, providing important information to research textile history of Yunnan.