MUSEUMS
1. National Museum of China
What the British Museum is to London, the National Museum of China is to Beijing. Dedicated to Chinese history and arts, it documents the evolution of Chinese civilization through the country’s most important historic and cultural artifacts. The museum hosts two permanent, and numerous temporary exhibitions of art, history, and archaeology.
2. Natural History Museum
The museum has around 5,000 specimens on display, including a fine collection of models and skeletons of dinosaurs, and other prehistoric creatures.
Natural History Museum
3. Songtang Museum
3 Guozijian Jie • Subway: Yonghe Gong • Open 9am–6pm daily • Adm
A Cultural Revolution survivor, Li Songtang wanted to preserve ancient China from both political and economic destruction. Housed in a 200-year-old hutong courtyard home, this museum displays stone and wood carvings, plus a number of artifacts from several dynasties.
4. Poly Art Museum
Floor 9, New Poly Plaza, 1 Chaoyang Men Bei Dajie, Dongcheng District • 6500 1188 • Open 9:30am–4:30pm Mon–Sat • Adm
This museum is cool, quiet, and packed with ancient Chinese bronzes and Buddhist statuary.
5. Imperial City Art Museum
Call by this museum near the Forbidden City to see all the bits of imperial Beijing that didn’t survive. The walls and gates that once encircled the city, along with dozens of vanished temples, are revisited through a great many maps, models, and photographs.
6. Beijing Police Museum
36 Dong Jiao Min Xiang • 8522 5018 • Subway: Qian Men • Open 9am–4pm Tue–Sun
In the 19th-century former City Bank of New York, this surprisingly fun museum has displays on themes such as the suppression of drug dealers and counter-revolutionaries. Famed police dog Feisheng is stuffed and mounted and there are live transmissions from a traffic camera. An interactive screen poses questions and correct answers win prizes.
7. Capital Museum
Formerly housed in the Confucius Temple, this museum now boasts a large and modern five-story building near Fuxingmen. It documents Beijing’s history through over 200,000 relics and archival images. Among the many permanent exhibitions is the fascinating “Stories of the Capital City – Old Beijing Folk Customs”.
The modern building housing the Capital Museum
8. National Art Museum of China
The largest art museum in the country, with an impressive 64,580 sq ft (6,000 sq m) of floor space, the National Art Museum of China hosts several exhibitions which feature internationally renowned Chinese and foreign artists. Memorable shows have included an ethnic textile exhibition and a display by famed Mexican photographer Pedro Meyer.
National Art Museum of China
9. Ancient Architecture Museum
Close to the Temple of Heaven, south of Tian’an Men Square, this place is worth a visit for the museum building alone, which is the pavilion of a former grand temple complex.
10. Military Museum of the Chinese People’s Revolution
Visitors to this museum are greeted by paintings of Mao, Marx, Lenin, and Stalin, at least two of whom were responsible for inflicting the horrific levels of death and destruction depicted within the museum. The first floor is filled with fighter planes, tanks, and missiles, while displays upstairs chronicle China’s military campaigns.
Ground floor at the Military Museum
