Pengshan to build Zhang Xianzhong Relics Museum

Pengshan will invite global tender for construction of the Zhangxianzhong Relics Museum in 2017, said an official in a recent interview, West China Metropolis Daily reported.

The mysterious treasures of Zhang, the famous leader of a peasant uprising toward the end of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), will meet the public once the museum was completed next year, said Ma Wei, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Pengshan District Committee in Meishan City, Sichuan Province.

The museum will be located in Jiangkou Town, where the historic relics were discovered. Its planned construction area is around 8,000 square meters.

Legend has it that a great number of ships carrying Zhang's vast amount of treasures sank to the bottom of the Pengshan section of the Mingjiang River when he and his army were fleeing enemy forces more than 300 years ago.

The legend proved true after the police cracked down on a major antique theft case in 2016, confiscating more than 1,000 cultural relics.

The treasures, later recoganized by experts as Zhang's treasure hoard, include the biggest gold ingot in the Ming Dynasty and a gold seal weighing several kilograms.