Yin Xu (Yin Ruins)
Yin Xu
Oracle Bone Inscriptions: Over 150,000 fragments of tortoise shells and animal bones used for divination, representing the earliest systematic writing system in East Asia.
Tomb of Lady Fu Hao: The only intact royal tomb ever found at Yin Xu, belonging to a legendary female general and queen, containing nearly 2,000 precious artifacts including bronzes, jades, and ivories.
Palace and Ancestral Temples: Foundation ruins of over 80 palace structures that showcase the early evolution of Chinese courtyard-style architecture.
Yinxu Museum (New Site): A state-of-the-art facility opened in 2024 that displays massive bronze vessels like the Houmuwu Ding (replica on-site) and hundreds of Shang-era chariots.
Yin Xu is the site of the last capital of the Shang Dynasty (c. 1300–1046 BC). It is a milestone in Chinese history, serving as the birthplace of modern Chinese archaeology and the site where the oldest known form of Chinese writing, the Oracle Bone script, was discovered. The ruins offer irrefutable evidence of the late Shang Dynasty's existence and its advanced Bronze Age civilization.
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