Liangzhu Museum

This guide to Liangzhu Museum in Hangzhou opens on April 30, 1987, when word that a hillside near Yaoshan was full of jade sent thousands of farmers tearing into ancient tombs with hoes and bare hands. You'll hear how police finally moved in with an amnesty, and how villagers returned hundreds of looted pieces, including jade cong marking the graves of Liangzhu's ruling elite, a civilization nearly five thousand years old with no writing of its own. Not every piece came back whole, either. Two men who found one jade tube together ended up sawing it in half rather than share it.