【AICC Original Article】Shouxian County: A Millennia-Old City That "Comes to Life"

"Look, this bronze artifact is telling me its story!" On April 2, in the exhibition hall of the Anhui Chu Culture Museum in Shouxian County, Zhang Tingting, a middle school student from Huaibei, wore a pair of AR glasses. She tilted her head slightly, moving her gaze from one artifact to another. Each time she paused, animations and text appeared in the glasses, accompanied by clear audio explanations.

The reporter leaned in and followed her gaze to a uniquely shaped bronze artifact—a nao (an ancient percussion instrument) with patterns resembling the face of a bronze figure from Sanxingdui. "This is an ancient musical instrument. In the past, I would walk through the museum and forget everything I saw. But now, with these glasses, the artifacts speak for themselves—it's like having a personal guide who explains even the historical stories behind them," Zhang said.

These AR glasses are a recently introduced smart guide device at the Anhui Chu Culture Museum. As the only museum in China named after "Chu Culture," it houses over 10,000 artifacts, including more than 700 pieces related to Chu culture. Among them are 230 national first-class cultural relics and 2,257 pieces of precious cultural relics ranked third class or above.

Stepping out of the museum, history found another way to "speak." The ancient city of Shouxian County, known in ancient times as "Shouchun," "Shouyang," and "Shouzhou," has a history of over 2,000 years since its founding. Walking up to the Shouchun ancient city wall and touching its weathered bricks, one could almost hear the whispers of a thousand years of wind. "The Chu-era Shouchun City was seven or eight times larger than the present one, but unfortunately, it was destroyed by war. The existing city wall was rebuilt during the Xining period of the Northern Song Dynasty and restored during the Jiading period of the Southern Song Dynasty," a representative from the Shouxian County Bureau of Culture and Tourism explained.

Walking along the city wall, one arrives at Chunshen Fang, a district named after Huang Xie, Lord Chunshen of the Warring States period. This area blends the charm of Chu and Han culture with the lively atmosphere of local life. Inside the district, two millennium-old ginkgo trees drew many visitors to stop and admire them. "These two ginkgo trees were planted in the ninth year of the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty and are over 1,300 years old," an on-site guide explained. It is said that Chunshen Fang is developing a live-action performance project titled Encounter with Lord Chunshen, using light and shadow technology to make history "speak" and tell the stories of the Chu Kingdom.

Further along, on West Street of the ancient city, lies the Twenty-Four Solar Terms Museum. Shouxian County is the birthplace of the Huainanzi and a fertile ground for the culture of the twenty-four solar terms. Inside the museum, using sound, light, and electricity technologies, visitors can personally simulate activities such as dragon boat rowing and plowing, while listening to local folk proverbs. Wang Yu, a visitor from Jiangsu who experienced the museum with her child, remarked, "Before, the twenty-four solar terms were just words on a calendar. Today, I truly feel the charm of agricultural culture." Here, the solar terms become vivid memories that "sing" folk songs and "come to life."

From the bronze artifacts "speaking" through AR glasses, to the thousand-year echoes seeping through the cracks of the ancient city wall; from the whispers of ginkgo leaves to the folk proverbs and local accents in the Solar Terms Museum — in Shouxian County, history has never been silent. As you take a spring trip through Jianghuai, why not visit this ancient city and listen to the stories of the past, polished by time.

Source: Anhui Daily