Located between the Chanhe and the Bahe rivers, to the east of Xi'an city, Museum built on the Banpo Village Ruins is the first on-site prehistoric museum in China. Banpo is a typical Neolithic Matriarchal community of the Yangshao culture (5000-3000 BC) around 6000 years ago. About 400 sites of this type have been discovered around the Yellow River Valley with the Banpo site being the largest one. It is also the most complete example of an agricultural Neolithic settlement in the world.

The ruins were discovered in 1953 by workers laying the foundations for a factory and the excavation work last four years.  In 1958, Banpo Village Ruins opened to the public. The site is a large area of 5-6 hectares and surrounded by a man-made moat, 300 meters long and about tow meters deep and two meters wide, protecting the village from attacks from wild animals and from the effects of heavy rainfall.

Occupying an area of approximate 50,000 square kilometer, the Banpo site was divided into three areas: a residential area, a pottery-manufacturing area and a cemetery. These include the remains of more than 40 homes, 200 storage pots, a collection of pottery and tools, a pottery-making centre and more than 250 graves belonging to a matriarchal community of the Yangshao culture. Production tools used by the Banpo people, including stone knives, sickle, fishhook, specula are displayed in the museum, which delivers visitors a vivid picture of the lifestyle of the primitive Banpo people a very long time ago. Masterpieces excavated from the Banpo Village Ruins are Fish and Human Face Design Pottery Basin, Pointed Bottom Bottle, Pottery Streamer and Children’s Burial Jar.