Beijing's Museums Flourish

The first half of 2011 saw the opening of three museums in Beijing: the Museum of Chinese Women and Children, the Fangshan Geopark Museum, and the China Fire Museum.

So far, 159 museums have registered in Beijing, covering state level, municipal level, and district level as well as those with civil or industrial attributes. The number is only second to London. Of all the country’s museums, the museums in Beijing provide exhibitions of the broadest themes, best quality, and largest scale.

On average, Beijing’s museums hold around 400 exhibitions per year. Big or small, the museums are often crowded with dozens of visitors. Just like a record of history, the museums have preserved the development of the ancient city.

The expansion of the National Museum of China has taken four years and 2.5 billion yuan. After completion, the new free-of-charge museum became the largest museum in the world. A variety of exhibitions are offered, such as Ancient Chinese Buddhist Sculpture, Ancient Chinese Porcelain Art, and the Art of Li Keran.

A museum street is located in Gaobeidian Village, Chaoyang District. At first when the village planned to open the first museum, the Museum of Imperial Examination Horizontal Inscribed Boards, villagers weren’t much in favor of it. In their view, a museum would be a foreign thing in town.

In 2006, despite doubts, the 3000-square-meter yard collected over 500 inscribed boards. Learning more about the history and receiving more tourists, villagers that were originally opposing changed their minds.

Since then, almost every year has witnessed a new museum in the village. Up to now, the village has become a small world of Chinese culture and there are museums such as the Ancient Musical Instrument Museum, the Ancient Furniture Museum, the Warm Furnace Museum, and even the Village History Museum.

The boom in museums has given rise to a creative cultural industry. Simple manufacturing has expanded to an assembly line of diversified production, sales, food, tourism, and folk culture reception services. Roughly calculated, the creative cultural industry alone profits over 10 million yuan every year.