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Genre: Attractions

Opening: All the Year (close on each monday)

Hours: 8:30am - 5:30pm

Discount Prices(booking fee): RMB 100

Notice: Tickets Booking 1 Day in Advance

BRIEF INTRODUCTION

Since its inception, the National Museum of China has been dedicated to preserving and showcasing the nation’s cultural heritage and promoting cultural exchanges with other countries.

Located in the heart of Beijing, the 200,000-square-meter National Museum of China – boasting 48 galleries – ranks among the most-visited museums in China and is one of the world’s largest modern museum complexes.

Built in 1912, the museum now houses a collection of over 1.43 million items, spanning across various categories such as ancient artifacts, and modern and contemporary relics and artworks. It has three permanent exhibitions – “Ancient China,” “The Road of Rejuvenation,” and “The Road of Rejuvenation: New Era,” showcasing the continuity and splendor of the Chinese civilization over the past 5,000 years. Additionally, the museum generally hosts around 50 temporary and traveling exhibitions each year.

Among its vast collection, nearly 6,000 items (or sets) are classified as national first-grade cultural relics. Some of its most famous treasures include the Pottery Jar with Stork Catching Fish and Stone Axe Design, the Eagle-shaped Pottery Ding (a food container), and the Jade Dragon of the Hongshan Culture from the Neolithic period, the Houmuwu Square Ding and the Square Bronze Zun with Four Goats (a sacrificial object) from the Shang Dynasty (c.1600–1100 B.C.), the Pottery Storyteller Beating a Drum from the Han Dynasty (202 B.C. –220 A.D.), the Sancai-glazed Pottery Musicians on Camelback from the Tang Dynasty (618–907), and Empress Xiaoduan’s phoenix crown from the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644).

Tech-Based Relic Exhibition

Today, in addition to traditional physical exhibitions, the National Museum of China has been making use of modern technology to offer a window showcasing cultural legacy to visitors.

In May 2023, “The Digital World of the Rhino-shaped Vessel” exhibition opened to the public here. Inspired by the Bronze Rhino-shaped Zun (wine vessel) decorated with gold and silver patterns from the Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.–8 A.D.) on display in the museum’s permanent exhibition, this digital exhibition illustrates the artifact in various angles from its discovery and functions to casting and decorative techniques and aesthetic designs. It is noteworthy that details of the artifact and the latest research findings on it are presented digitally through various technologies.

“This is the museum’s first intelligent gallery, harnessing various technologies such as the internet, big data, cloud computing, high-definition 3D imaging, environmental monitoring, artificial intelligence (AI), and augmented reality (AR). It offers visitors a new experience by inviting them behind the scenes to get a better understanding of the intelligent technology used to analyze artifacts and the latest research findings,” said Zhu Xiaoyun, a research fellow at the National Museum of China and designer of this tech-based exhibition.

Tickets for National Museum of China are Available now!