Yunnan Nationalities Museum
云南民族博物馆
Address: 1503 Dianchi Road, Xishan District, Kunming, Yunnan Province
Websites: en.ynnmuseum.com (En)
www.ynnmuseum.com (Cn)
Hours: 9:00-16:30
Closed days: Closed on Mondays
Ticket booking: 0871-64311385
Admission: Free (passport required for entry)
When Dynamic Yunnan directed and performed by Chinese dancing artist Yang Liping drew crowds in the United States, westerners were introduced to the mysterious Yunnan. Yang Liping also impressed westerners with her unique performance and ethnic customs. Yunnan, a southwest province in China, has the greatest number of ethnicities in the country and the Yunnan Nationalities Museum is a good place to learn about them.
The museum covers an area of 133,300 square meters with a building area of 30,000 square meters. It is the largest ethnicity museum in China and famous in Asia. Committed to conserving and promoting ethnic cultures, it now houses more than 40,000 cultural relics, including the most complete collection of ethnic costumes and accessories in China. Its basic exhibits cover clothing and tailoring, ancient books on the writing systems of ethnic minorities, traditional production and living technologies, ethnic musical instruments and folk masks, eaves from buildings showing folk architecture, and fine arts and pottery.
To date it has staged more than 80 thematic exhibitions in foreign countries like France, Finland, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, the United States, Japan, and Russia and other cities of China like Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai. In addition, it joined with a large number of local artists in Yunnan to start an artist base, where various art exhibitions and lectures offer contemporary ethnic cultures and arts.
The Yunnan Nationalities Museum is not only a public cultural venue but also a tourist attraction that combines aesthetic pleasure with profound cultural insight.