Even if you don't have the chance to travel all around China to see the country's rich cultural relics, you may still see a lot by just go to the Shanghai Expo where more than one hundred pieces of country or provincial level cultural artifacts are on display for visitors.

In hopes of demonstrating the excellence and magnificence of their cultural legacy, 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions have not skimped on bringing and showing their greatest local treasures to Expo visitors.

Some of them are such valuable cultural items that the Chinese government prohibits them from being exhibited overseas – for example, the bronze chariot and horse unearthed near the mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shihuang; the gilt bronze human-shaped lamp belonging to the royal family of the Western Han Dynasty; and the Zeng Houyi bronze bell produced almost 2,500 years ago which can still make beautiful music today.

Here are our suggestions to some must sees at the Expo.

The ten treasures of Dunhuang

Venue: Pavilion of Footprint in Zone D

Ten Buddhist treasures from Dunhuang City of Gansu Province, including five sculptures and five scriptures, made their debut at the Expo Park on April 20. Only two of the five Dunhuang Buddhist scriptures will be displayed for the duration of the 184-day exhibition; the other three will be displayed by rotation. The five sculptures include a wooden six-armed avalokitesvara, or "enlightenment-being"; this sort of relic is quite rare in Dunhuang.

The wooden six-armed avalokitesvara

Gilt Bronze Human-shaped Lamp

Venue: China Pavilion

The Gilt Bronze Human-shaped Lamp is one of the most precious relics found in the Hebei Provincial Museum. Excavated from the Western Han Royal Tomb in Mancheng County, Hebei, China in 1968, the relic is a bronze lamp that was used in the Changxin Palace in Chang'an during the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. – A.D.220). The lamp is an excellent example of the bronze art developed during the Han Dynasty.

In 2002, it was listed by the Chinese government as one of 64 cultural relics prohibited from being exhibited overseas. 

The Gilt Bronze Human-shaped Lamp