The day following the fantastic total eclipse, our 187 travelers on the Victoria
Princess spent a good part of the day in Wuhan, a large city midway between
Chongquing and Shanghai. We climbed aboard buses and traveled to the Hubei
Provincial Museum to see historical treasures from the region. The name was
familiar to me immediately as a mineral collector from Hubeite, an unusual
species that was discovered in this province.
See all the images from Dave's tour in our solar eclipse 2009 trip gallery.
The
museum constitutes a large, sprawling complex of several buildings. First we
went inside a theater for a 30-minute performance of ancient Chinese music
played on instruments created to match those found in the tomb of Marquis Yi of
Zeng, a feudal king buried 2,400 years ago. The most percussive concert was a
treat for the eyes and for the ears, particularly for a drummer like me.
We
then saw the original artifacts from Yi's tomb, mostly made of bronze and
constituting drums, cups, bells, arrowheads, bowls, food containers, and a wine
cooler that preceded Frigidaire by 23 centuries. We also saw many precious gold
and jade artifacts recovered from the tomb, which was excavated in 1978.
The
museum contains many other treasures of Hubei Province, including neolithic
items, the species of Homo erectus known as Yunxian Man, and enormous galleries
of lacquered wooden items from ancient times. It was a real treat for anyone
with an interest in history.
The
highlight of the afternoon back on shipboard was Seth Shostak's talk about what
will become of humans on Earth. Shostak, well-known SETI astronomer and
sometime Astronomy contributor,
delivered a fascinating look at how, long before the Sun kills off life on our
planet, energy consumption, climate change, robotics, and population growth may
spell an end to things as we know them. It was a real eye opener, meant to
provoke and cause lots of conversations, and it certainly did.
Tomorrow
we travel to the Yellow Mountains. Stay tuned for a further report.
Follow Astronomy editors as they continue their tours of China at Twitter.com/AstronomyMag (@AstronomyMag)
Previous post: We visit the Three Gorges Dam