STORY: More than 1,000 bamboo slips on display in Chinese museum
DATELINE: Sept. 8, 2023
LENGTH: 0:01:17
LOCATION: LANZHOU, China
CATEGORY: CULTURE

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the new hall of the Gansu Bamboo Slip Museum
2. SOUNDBITE (Chinese): XIAO CONGLI, Gansu Bamboo Slip Museum
3. various of bamboo slips on display

STORYLINE:

The new hall of a bamboo slip museum in northwest China's Gansu Province opened on Thursday, with more than 1,000 ancient bamboo slips on display.
   
Most of these slips are being showcased for the first time since they were discovered, including those dating back some 2,000 years to the Han Dynasty (202 BC-AD 220).
   
Bamboo slips, with vertical columns of characters, were China's first form of books. They were the main writing material before paper. A bamboo slip, or even a character on it, could reveal hidden history.

SOUNDBITE (Chinese): XIAO CONGLI, Gansu Bamboo Slip Museum
"These two slips wrote about ancient post stations, depicting the east section of the ancient Silk Road route, which was from Chang'an to Dunhuang in the Han Dynasty. It can serve as irrefutable historical materials to confirm the existence of the Silk Road."

The new hall of the museum will officially open to the public on Saturday.
   
Located along the Hexi Corridor, part of the ancient Silk Road in northwest China, Gansu has a dry climate, and therefore, the ancient bamboo slips can be better preserved there.

Latest figures show that more than 60,000 bamboo slips have been unearthed in the province, most of which are from the Han Dynasty.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Lanzhou, China.
(XHTV)