National Museum of China

National Museum of China
中国国家博物馆

Address: East side of Tian'anmen Square, 16 East Chang'an Avenue, Dongcheng district, Beijing
Websites: en.chnmuseum.cn/ (En) www.chnmuseum.cn/ (Cn)
Hours: 8:30-17:00 (no entry after 16:30)
General admission: Free (passport required for entry)
Closed Mondays (except for national holidays)
E-mail: webmaster@chnmuseum.cn

The National Museum of China (NMC) was established in 2003 after the amalgamation of the National Museum of Chinese History and the National Museum of Chinese Revolution, but its history can be traced back to 1912 when the Preparatory Office of the National Museum of History was founded. After a development of more than 100 years, NMC has become an important platform for collection, protection and display of cultural relics, social education and scientific research as well as international historical and cultural exchanges. With a floor area of nearly 200,000 square meters, NMC is the largest single-building museum in the world. It is home to two permanent exhibitions, Ancient China and The Road of Rejuvenation, and dozens of thematic exhibitions.

Six thousand artifacts in the NMC collection are classified as national treasures and precious rarities. They are of diverse types with great historical, scientific and artistic value, and are witness to the inheritance of China’s excellent traditional culture of 5,000 years, the untiring struggle of the Chinese people for more than 170 years after the Opium War, the development of the People’s Republic of China over nearly 70 years, the achievements of China’s reform and opening up in the last 40 years, and the new efforts of the Chinese people after the 18th CPC National Congress. Examples include the reproduction of fossil remains of the prehistoric humans inhabited in China (Yuanmo Man, Peking Man, and Upper Cave Man), painted potteries and jade wares dated to the Neolithic Age, the world's heaviest surviving bronze ware – a Houmuwu RectangleDingVessel of the Shang Dynasty (c.16th century- 11th century BC), the inscribed stone at the Langya Terrace by the Shihuang Emperor of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) and his successor, and works of art that epitomize the highest craftsmanship of every historical period or testify to past incidents recorded in historical documents.

edited based on the English introduction of the NMC official website