Fan Xianyu, an experienced journalist from Beijing, felt a pleasant sense of surprise when he visited Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum in Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan Province, in mid-January.

"It's snowing and biting cold in Beijing, while it's green everywhere in the museum," said Fan, a Chinese literature lover.

Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum is dedicated to Du Fu (AD 712-770), one of China's greatest poets. Du's poems are included in school textbooks, and any foreign student of Chinese literature should be acquainted with his works.

Covering 16 hectares, the museum, which is also a great place to relax, boasts over 100 types of flowers in different seasons. Even in this coldest of winters, its evergreen bamboo groves and aroma of plum blossoms give a hint of spring.

Located on the bank of the Flower Bathing Brook in Chengdu, Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum is not a cottage in the literal sense. It is a commemorative museum including a traditional Chinese garden built at the site where Du Fu constructed a thatched cottage for his family in AD 760.

A native of Gongxian County in Central China's Henan Province, Du moved to Chengdu in AD 759 to take refuge from a war fought between two rebelling generals that led to the decline of the lustrous Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907). He lived a peaceful life for about four years in his cottage, writing 240 of his 1,400 poems.

Du's poems are known for sympathetic portrayals of human suffering and bitterness in the face of injustice and corruption.

Du's cottage was destroyed in the late Tang Dynasty. In AD 902, a poet named Wei Zhuang found the ruins and built a new cottage on the site. Since then it has undergone more than 10 major renovations.

Today, Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum consists of several structures, including a replica of Du's thatched cottage built in 1997 according to the description of Du's poetic works.

Near the cottage is a new exhibition hall housing relics unearthed from an archaeological discovery on October 14, 2001 when workers repairing drainage pipes near the museum's main entrance found a pit believed to have been used during the Tang Dynasty.

The site has witnessed the excavation of plenty of ceramic utensils of the Tang Dynasty. Of these utensils 106 are intact, including bowls, trays, basins, jars, vases, cups, chess pieces, pottery balls, tiles, eaves titles, bricks, iron, copper and stone ware.

According to Zhou Weiyang, curator of the Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum, this is the first archaeological field work that has been done in the museum since it was set up 50 years ago.

The large number of relics unearthed at the site has added more authenticity to the museum.

"Although Chengdu boasts a history of more than 2,300 years, the discovery of the Tang relics daily utensils in this case is still considered a rare find in the city," said Wang Yi, chief of the Chengdu Relics and Archaeological Institute.

The Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum has become the sacred land of Chinese literature and visiting it is a must for most first-time visitors to Chengdu.

Strolling leisurely in the museum grounds, visitors can enjoy the aura of ancient culture, as well as tranquility in the bamboo groves, away from the urban jungle.

Visiting the museum has long been a custom of Chengdu residents during Spring Festival.

(China Daily January 27, 2006)