[Photo by Jiang Dong/China Daily]

The Civilizations of Qin and Han, the exhibition now on at the National Museum of China, celebrates the glory of the two dynasties (221 BC-AD 220) in terms of politics, economy, arts and culture.

More than 300 artifacts from 30 museums and institutions across the country are on show through Nov 30.

Part of the display were previously shown at Age of Empires held earlier this year at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the rest are on loan from the permanent displays at prestigious museums in cities such as Shanghai, Nanjing and Xi’an.

The exhibits include objects that people are quite familiar with, including the Terracotta Warriors and a jade stem cup.

Also there are lesser-shown pieces which, however, bear even more important information, such as a small piece of map on paper dating to the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC-AD 24), while paper is traditionally known as an invention of Cai Lun of Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220).