A LIFE-SIZED Jade suit of armour laid to rest with an ancient Chinese ruler will go on display at Colchester Castle in 2012.

Artefacts spanning 8,000 years of China’s history are to be shipped to the UK for display at the Treasures of China exhibition, which opens on June 30 next year.

The Colchester and Ipswich museum service has revealed some of the 70 priceless items and ornaments that will be borrowed from Nanjing Museum – the second-largest museum in China.

They include a 2,000-year-old life-sized jade suit of armour from the tombs of the Han Dynasty rulers and a gold cicada sitting on a jade leaf worn by a Ming princess nearly 600 years ago.

Nick Barlow, Colchester councillor responsible for culture, said the exhibition was an extremely rare opportunity to see such treasures without visiting China.

He said: “We are very privileged to have these artefacts coming here. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see them.

“I think it will be a great exhibition, and a chance to see things that have never before left China.

“Some of them are incredibly valuable, and hopefully it will build some long-term relationships between us and the museums in China.”

The exhibition builds on 22-year-old links between Essex County Council and Jiangsu province in China.

It follows the successful Guardians to the King exhibition at the castle in 2008, which showcased Han dynasty terracotta figurines.

Other ornaments, some chosen by ten children from the Gilberd School who won a competition to visit China in February, will include luxuries that adorned the palace of the last of the Imperial families in the early 20th century.

The display will include a Qing dynasty bronze and enamel elephant, an 8,000-year-old pottery pig and three wise monkeys on a lacquer plate.

Shortly after the exhibition closes on January 7, the castle museum is to shut for more than a year while a lottery-funded £4.2million overhaul takes place.

In 2013, Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service will strengthen ties by sending some of its artefacts to Nanjing Museum.