Chinese man kicks back on ancient jade exhibit during visit to Sichuan museum

A visitor to an archaeological site in southwestern China caused a stir online after being photographed lying on one of the exhibits, a huge slab of raw jade.

The incident happened at the Sanxingdui Museum in Guanghan, Sichuan province, which is on the site of a former walled city that dates back about 3,600 years, Beijing Youth Daily reported.

Photographs of the man, who was not identified, reclining on the massive rock were widely circulated on social media.

According to the newspaper report, staff at the museum asked the visitor to get off the exhibit, but he refused. It was only when his wife appeared on the scene and scolded him that he acquiesced.

Internet users said the man should be named and shamed for his “uncivilised behaviour”, but the museum said that it did not record visitors’ names and could therefore not identify the culprit.

It did, however, publish the image of him lying on the jade slab online and appealed to other visitors not to replicate his behaviour.

Sanxingdui, located about 40km (25 miles) from Sichuan’s provincial capital Chengdu, is the name for an archaeological site unearthed in 1986 as well as the giant bronze statues found there. The site is also thought to have been home to a walled city built about 1,600BC which had links to the ancient Shu kingdom.

The block of raw jade the visitor used as a daybed was found in a nearby river, a worker at the museum was quoted as saying.

Although it is not a cultural relic, the cut marks found on it suggest the area was a base for jade processing, the report said.