Although I thought for sure that Alexander’s first museum experience would be my favorite natural history museum in Chicago, his first adventure was in Guangzhou! We didn’t have time to post about all of our adventures, so I’m starting to fill in the gaps while we’re settling in at home. So don’t mind the slight retrospective commentary– there will be more where this came from.

Thanks to a rainstorm during our trip while in Guangzhou, our planned excursion to a botanic garden was replaced by a visit to the Museum of the Mausoleum of the Nanyue King— an absolutely incredible place.

An exquisite jade carving depicting the phoenix and dragon

A full-body suit of jade found in the tomb. Jade is often called “Crazy Stone” in China because of its fluctuating value. Right now, a small jade bracelet will run you about $6k. It would have been only a few hundred dollars less than a decade ago.

We were able to enter the excavated tomb– which is housed under this glass dome.

What I found most incredible about the museum is that the tomb’s rich contents were found in full– especially when you consider how many Egyptian tombs were plundered.  The contents displayed in and around the tomb at the museum were just unbelievable– and it was a fantastic first museum experience for Alexander. Though he didn’t read all of the label copy ( I don’t think he read ANY of it!), several squeals indicated that he is a museum kid!

One more cute photo from our day at the museum