Fung Ping Shan Museum is one of Hong Kong's most fascinating museums, all the more appealing for being little-visited and lodged in a lovely Edwardian-era building.

Its highlights are some 467 Nestorian bronze crosses, the largest collection of its kind in the world: the total numbers of pieces - not all are shown- is almost a thousand. The crosses, found in the Ordos region of northern China, belonged to a heretical Christian sect that came to China from Syria during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-906). The sect survived for centuries, these crosses dating from the time of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). The crosses, each just a few centimeters across, vary in shape from plain crucifixes to stars, circles and swastikas. Their purpose was probably decorative, the flat back and fixed loop on each suggesting they were designed to be attached to a belt or worn as a pendant. 

Elsewhere the first floor contains two other major groups of Chinese bronzes, namely 10th- to 7th-century BC pieces from the Shang and Zhou dynasties - mainly weapons and ritual vessels- and a series of bronze mirrors from the era of the Early Warring States (475-221 BC). 

On the second floor the emphasis is on ceramics, with pieces from virtually every period from the Neolithic era to the present day. Look out in particular for the painted Neolithic pottery, the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) tomb ceramics, the Han Dynasty Horse, the celebrated kiln ware (notably the china pillows) of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the Sui Dynasty (AD 581-618) spittoons, the three-color glazed Tang pottery (especially the camel) and the rich polychrome ceramics of the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1644 and 1644-1912). Recent work includes early 20th-century Buddhist monk statuettes and contemporary pieces from the noted Chinese pottery centers of Shiwan and Jingdezhen.