wang yueqian is a curator at the national museum. inspired majiayao art thousands of years ago. there's another, even more remarkable culture further along the river. my next stop, 800km south—west of beijing, is the city of luoyang in henan province. this is erlitou, one of the most extraordinary it was built on a prime location within the yellow river basin. at the dawn of chinese civilisation... ..covering a vast area of three square kilometres... this curiously shaped wine cup — of a type known as jue — is one of the earliest bronze vessels found in china. the erlitou museum's director, zhao xiaojun, has spent years studying early chinese bronzes. the more time you spend with it, it's very, very elegant. it has these three artily slender, pointed legs, almost like a spider's legs, which it's resting upon, and this trim waist flaring up to the top. if you look from above, and then around the waist, it's like a belt there is something feminine about the whole form, something very beautiful. it looks like maybe a delicate dancer. this precious object was probably used during ri