Introduction to the most worthwhile museums in China

There are actually a lot of museums in China. If you want to visit a museum, you can take a look at the following. In fact, the most famous museum in China is the National Palace Museum. Others who may know it are not. a lot of. Museums

We can apply a "grade theory" to museums across the country, just like the hotels in Sanya. I divided them into 3 levels.

The first level is equivalent to Michelin three stars, which means that you should go to the city alone for it.

The second level is equivalent to two Michelin stars. If you go to that city, you can’t miss it.

The third level is equivalent to one Michelin star. If you happen to be nearby, go check it out.

First level: God-level museums (equivalent to 3 Michelin stars)

The Palace Museum, National Museum of China, Shanghai Museum, Taipei National Palace Museum, Hunan Provincial Museum, Shaanxi History Museum, Henan Museum, Hubei Provincial Museum, Nanjing Museum.

They belong to the must-visit series in China.

Second level: some excellent provincial and municipal museums (equivalent to 2 Michelin stars)

Provincial ones include: Zhejiang Provincial Museum, Guizhou Provincial Museum, Guangdong Provincial Museum, Yunnan Provincial Museum Provincial Museum, Gansu Provincial Museum, etc.

The municipal ones include: Suzhou Museum, Ningbo Museum, Shenzhen Museum, Guilin Museum, etc.

Third level: various local specialty museums (equivalent to 1 Michelin star)

For example, the Chinese Knife and Scissors Museum, the Chinese Fan Museum and the Chinese Umbrella Museum in Hangzhou; the Liuli Art Museum and the Shanghai Glass Museum in Shanghai; the Gulangyu Organ Museum in Xiamen; the Chinese Watermelon Museum in Beijing; and the Chineseness of Jiangsu Cultural Museum, etc.

They may not have that rich collection, but they have almost achieved the ultimate in a certain field, and they often have a little fun.

So, what are the benefits of spending a few hours or even a few days visiting these museums?

It is a shortcut to deeply understand the local culture

There are many art galleries and museums in the city, which are also one of the best ways to get to know the local area.

Now when we travel, we can only see the existing natural and cultural features of the local area. The existence of the museum can take you to see what this place looked like before and witness the way of life of human beings in different time and space. It is very interesting to know what the locals used to eat and what kind of houses they lived in.

Take the Yunnan Provincial Museum as an example. You can see Yunnan in different periods such as ancient times, the Bronze Age, the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Tang and Song Dynasties, etc., which adds a lot of new knowledge to the journey.

Visiting museums is a very cost-effective way to play in the city

It is generally very economical to visit museums in China, and most of the great provincial museums are free.

Many museums only require free exchange of tickets with your ID card to enter. Generally speaking, it takes at least half a day to visit seriously. Do you think it is worth it?

It allows you to Travel is more profound

Nowadays, most travel content may consist of eating, sleeping, walking around and taking photos, which is very relaxing.

Of course, just shopping and eating is fun enough. If you can go deeper into the history, culture, local customs, and this kind of spiritual content, it will be more memorable.

If you can go abroad in the future, you can also apply this travel logic to many destinations around the world.

Take Japan as an example. Even small counties in Kyushu have very good art museums, and they have the latest art exhibitions from time to time. For example, the "Oita Prefectural Museum of Art" has international art exhibitions. During the exhibition, a teamLab was held in a ruined hot spring house in Takeo Prefecture.

However, there are differences between art galleries and museums. Art galleries are a subtype of museums.

Culture and art are reassuring, and one of my big wishes in life is to visit as many different art museums around the world as possible.

Today I will talk to you about several provincial museums in China that are worth visiting. They are in popular destinations, but they have been ignored by many people. If you think this theme is not bad, then it will be too form a series.

The catalog of provincial museums is as follows. You can also go directly to the museums you are interested in.

1. Guizhou Provincial Museum

2. Zhejiang Provincial Museum

3. Hunan Provincial Museum

4. Guangdong Provincial Museum Guizhou Province Museum

The best place to listen to the stories of Guizhou

Although it was not included in the first two seasons of "National Treasures", after visiting it in person, I feel that it is not inferior at all.

A provincial museum is larger than a large shopping mall in the city. The outside design does not look like a traditional museum at all, but embraces a lot of modernity.

What I like most about the entire museum is the multimedia installation that appeared at the beginning of the tour. Girls from different ethnic minorities on the screen will say hello to you in local dialects and even dance, which instantly puts people into the context of ethnic minorities.

There are more than 80,000 exhibits in the entire museum, among which the Miao clothes and silver jewelry are eye-catching. Their quantity and quality here rank first in the country. I guess girls or people who are interested in clothing will like this place.

In the clothing branch, I was really stunned by the beauty of the clothes and jewelry of various girls! The girls wore gorgeous buns or stunning hairstyles on important days. The headwear, swaying and dancing among the crowd are all famous scenes.

The clothes collected in the museum are all somewhat gorgeous, and the patterns actually record things in nature and human mythology. Birds, beasts, insects, fish, plants, flowers and fruits are all represented on the clothes, as well as the creation of the world. , shooting the sun and shooting the moon and other mythical stories.

Many of the clothes were sewn by grandma or mother over several months, full of deep affection.

Silver jewelry is passed down from generation to generation, from grandmother to mother, and mother to daughter. It is very gorgeous and the details are worthy of scrutiny.

Girls use silverware as headdress, but what about boys? You can use dried small fish (of course this is an artistic expression)! If you are a shit shovel, maybe you can make one for your master.

It is said that international fashion brands, such as GUCCI, made a special trip to Guizhou to find inspiration from the totem embroidery of local ethnic minorities.

Other exhibits are also real big names. There are authentic works by Zheng Banqiao, Qi Baishi and Feng Zikai in the calligraphy and painting exhibition hall.

Zheng Banqiao’s bamboo paintings are also admirable. The bamboo leaves look messy, but in fact they are not messy. The alternation of density and density makes the bamboo appear to be very upright.

I remember that in the Chinese painting class in elementary school, the teacher taught us to learn Zheng Banqiao’s bamboo painting. No matter how we imitated it at that time, the painting was very clumsy.

I am very impressed by Qi Baishi, who is good at painting shrimps and crabs. Although his brushwork is rough, the overall crab is very expressive. The crabs in the painting are playful and carefree, making people reluctant to eat them.

The security guards in the museum also know the exhibits. If you want to find exhibits, you can consult them.

In a short period of time, he took us through these paintings with names that are the treasures of the museum. If we were to browse by ourselves, we might not be able to find them.

Guizhou is the cradle of ancient life on earth, so there are a lot of fossils here, and it is known as the "Kingdom of Paleontology."

There are many dinosaur fossils on land and marine life fossils in the museum (Guizhou used to be an ocean).

There is a special fossil exhibition hall upstairs, ranging from huge dinosaurs to tiny marine creatures.

There are a bunch of international brand hotels near the museum, such as Hyatt, Hilton, Renaissance, etc. It is a place where you can walk over while staying in a nearby hotel. There is also a Guanshan Lake Park next door. On a sunny day, you can see the sparkling water on the lake. It is also interesting to go to the park to look for all kinds of yellow fallen leaves in autumn. Zhejiang Provincial Museum

Next, let’s talk about the Zhejiang Museum which is closer. The Zhejiang Provincial Museum is divided into the Gushan area and the Wulin area. The basic exhibitions are open to the public free of charge throughout the year.

The Wulin exhibition area is built in the West Lake Cultural Square, located in the busy city, next to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. In Hangzhou, this position is quite C-level.

The Gushan exhibition area is right next to the West Lake, which is the Gushan in the "North Jiating West of Gushan Temple". The whole building has the flavor of Jiangnan gardens, and I personally like it better in terms of environment. Moreover, it is a place by the West Lake where you can avoid the crowds.

Generally speaking, there are fixed exhibitions and mobile exhibitions in the two museums.

Wulin Branch:

The Zhejiang Provincial Museum has 10 treasures, 9 of which are in the Wulin Branch, such as the famous Jade Cong and the Fuchun Mountain Dwelling.

In addition to the period when Hangzhou was used as the temporary capital in the Southern Song Dynasty, another glorious period of history here was the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. King Wu Yue ruled the two Zhejiang provinces (including the entire Zhejiang Province, southern Jiangsu Province, Shanghai, northeastern Fujian Province).

Therefore, many of the products on display are related to these two eras.

There are also exhibits representing different local cultures in Zhejiang, such as celadon from Longquan.

The Hemudu culture in Yuyao, Ningbo is also very famous, such as this ivory butterfly-shaped vessel, which is also listed as a "cultural relic prohibited from overseas exhibition" with the highest level of national cultural relics.

After visiting the Wulin branch, I recommend you take a bus boat from Wulinmen Pier to Xiaohezhi Street for the same price as taking a bus. The whole process is very healing.

It feels so good to listen to the BGM from "Reply 1988" while riding on the boat.

Gushan Branch

The interesting thing about Gushan Branch is that the exhibition halls with different themes are distributed in beautiful buildings with stories.

The treasure of the Gushan Park is the gilded silver Ashoka Pagoda. It was previously discovered in the underground palace of Leifeng Pagoda. It is made of pure silver and looks very spectacular.

There is Wenlan Pavilion here, which was once one of the seven royal libraries of the Qing Dynasty that collected the "Sikuquanshu". The theme currently on display here is called "Wenlan Heritage", you can see Go to the replica of the original manuscript of Siku Quanshu

Another theme worth seeing is "Auspicious Elephant Chongming", which mainly talks about the cultural relics of Leifeng Pagoda, and even the restoration of the excavation site of Leifeng Pagoda. . Seeing this scene, it felt like traveling through a thousand years.

Leifeng Pagoda is a Buddhist pagoda. The following Buddha statue, the gilt-bronze Buddha Sakyamuni Buddha speaking the Dharma, was also dug out from the underground palace of Leifeng Pagoda. After a thousand years, the light of Buddha will be reappeared, which means major.

When the leaves turn red and yellow, it will be more interesting to visit Zhejiang Expo. I can’t go to Japan to see the red leaves this year. In fact, there are quite a few secret places like this in the mountains beside West Lake in Hangzhou. While looking at the exhibits, you can also gain a lot of healing from the natural and architectural landscapes.

There are also kittens in Zhejiang Bogushan Park. See if you can see them sleeping or stretching. Hunan Provincial Museum

In addition to drinking tea and visiting Wenheyou, there are really many things to do in Changsha, such as visiting the Hunan Provincial Museum, the most worth visiting cultural landmark in Changsha. Many people directly call it "Xiangbo". For outsiders, it is quite easy to confuse the province.

Not understanding history is no excuse. Going here will only make Xiaobai more interested in history. The exhibits inside are very old, but the entire museum gives people a very trendy feel.

Among all the exhibits, the most dazzling ones are the Mawangdui Ancient Tomb and the immortal Lady Xin Zhui. Many people walked away with shock after seeing it.

Of course, this is also due to the excellent explanation of the exhibits in the museum. What each item is, what it is used for, and how to use it are all explained clearly with pictures and texts.

Mawangdui Han Tomb

This series of exhibits in Mawangdui Han Tomb is the C position in the Xiangbo. If it were not for the discovery of the tomb of Liu He, Marquis of Haihun, the Mawangdui Han Tomb would definitely be the most exciting thing in the archeology of Han tombs in China.

Walking in the museum area is like walking into the world where the Twilight Master once lived. Although it's a bit cliché to say this, it's not an exaggeration. The entire layout is very immersive.

For example, there are many Han figurines among the funerary objects, playing different instruments, taking people into a Western Han music scene and imagining a music festival.

For example, the presentation of each piece of clothing makes people sigh at how exquisite the life of the ancients was. After reading this, and then looking at the fast-moving clothing in the mall, I really don’t feel excited at all.

Among them, I have to mention the "Western Han Dynasty silk paintings" and "plain gauze cicada clothes".

The content of the T-shaped silk painting pattern of the Western Han Dynasty comes from the "Book of Mountains and Seas", which shows the kingdom of heaven, the world, and hell. With the exquisite embroidery depiction, the pattern looks quite shocking, once again lamenting the power of ancient handicrafts.

Let’s take a look at the plain yarn clothing with straight skirts in the Western Han Dynasty.

It is incredibly thin and light. Such a large piece of clothing only weighs more than 100 grams and can be folded into a matchbox. Uniqlo's light down that can be packed into a small bag pales in comparison.

Using modern technology, it is impossible to achieve the craftsmanship of the ancients.

There are also some lacquerware among the funerary objects, such as dishes used for eating. The words "Jun Xing Shi" are written on the bowl, which basically means that you can eat well and drink well. The ancients lived their lives attentively, and they were not inferior to modern people at all.

In addition to the actual cultural relics, there are also some new media technologies to make the exhibition more vivid. As a special exhibition of cultural relics, the curatorial level of Xiangbo is among the top in the country.

Let’s talk about Mrs. Xin Zhui.

When Mrs. Xin Zhui’s body was unearthed in 1972, the news caused a global sensation. After more than two thousand years, it can still keep its body intact, its muscles are elastic, its joints can move, and its hair is still there. It is the first perfect wet corpse discovered in the world.

After the expert restored her appearance, Mrs. Xin Zhui looks like this↓, she is a great beauty.

The T-shaped silk painting mentioned above is a classic among her funerary objects.

In Xiangbo, you can see the immortal face of Mrs. Xin Zhui for thousands of years. There is no need to be afraid, there are so many people around her anyway. The commentator on the side will also tell people about the life of Mrs. Xin Zhui. It can be seen that she was very tasteful during her lifetime.

The most recent special exhibition on the first floor is the "Peruvian Ancient Civilization Exhibition", which is quite worth seeing.

Although there are only three floors, the area here is really large. If you walk around in depth, you may be unable to walk, but for everyone to rest, there are many in the museum. Chair.

It is recommended to start from the 3rd floor and look down for a better understanding. Except for the special exhibition, which requires a fee, everything else is free.

First floor: Special exhibition and Mrs. Xin Zhui

Second floor: Hunan history

Third floor: Mawangdui Han Tomb

Hunan Province The museum is by appointment only. 15,000 people can enter every day, and 9,000 places are issued online, and reservations can be made three days in advance. It’s not a big problem to go on weekdays, but if it’s a holiday, be sure to make a reservation in advance.

How to make a reservation?

1. Follow the "Hunan Provincial Museum" WeChat official account

2. Click "Visiting Services" at the bottom and select "Ticket Reservation"

3. Fill in personal or friends’ information

For such a large museum, it is very important to have explanations.

1. Manual explanations: There are free explanations on the second and third floors at 10 o'clock every day. Most of the explanations are retired old employees of the venue. Under their words, these thousands of years of cultural relics seem to be... Became more alive. Highly recommended!

2. Electronic explanation: Scan the QR code next to the booth for explanation. It is relatively less lively, but the advantage is that you can follow your own pace when visiting the exhibition.

3. Apply for a guide at the front desk.

Guangdong Provincial Museum

The Guangdong Provincial Museum is located in Zhujiang New Town. In this place where land is at a premium, it is a bit rare to have a large open space for humanities and art.

And the surrounding area is really easy to visit. The Canton Tower faces it across the river, and in a circle next to it are the Guangzhou Library, the Grand Theater, and the CBD where Guangzhou white-collar workers work.

Moreover, the appearance of the building is very beautiful, like a treasure box hidden among high-rise buildings. It also uses many hollow designs to make the overall look more artistic.

The Guangdong Provincial Museum is divided into four parts: the Art Hall, the Nature Hall, the History Hall, and the Temporary Exhibition Hall. Except for the Temporary Exhibition Hall, the other three halls mainly present some local stories from ancient times to the present.

What are the highlights in the permanent exhibition?

Chaozhou Woodcarving Art Exhibition

There are two major woodcarving systems in China, one is in Dongyang, Zhejiang, and the other is In Chaozhou.

Chaozhou here does not refer to today’s Chaozhou, but to the ancient Chaozhou Prefecture, which includes the entire three cities of Chaoshan.

The exquisiteness of Chaozhou wood carvings really exceeded my imagination. Craftsmen can use wood to depict stories, fights, celebrations, and watch them come to life.

The most indispensable thing in Chaoshan area is various ancestral halls. From the architecture to the interior, there are wood carving elements everywhere. In an ancestral hall, a shrine is indispensable. Simply put, it is a wooden seat used to worship gods.

Shrines can be carved in an ordinary way, or they can be very artistic. Generally speaking, after the design is carved, the shrine will be covered with pure gold foil, which will make it look more impressive.

There is a treasure here, called the "Golden Lacquered Wooden Carving Shrine". It has also been listed as a national treasure and is the largest known shrine.

There are many rich scenes on it, including some traditional patterns, plants and fruits, and lively scenes of major gatherings of ancient people. It can be regarded as a condensed map of the world, which is very shocking.

Duan Inkstone Art Exhibition

Duan Inkstone is one of the four famous inkstones. And it is quite magical. The ink ground with it will not freeze even in cold winters; the words written with this ink will not be eaten by insects or ants.

The inkstone here is a rare exhibit that can be touched in the museum. It is obviously a stone, but it has a soft texture. This makes people curious about the craftsmanship behind it. This exhibition is just right. Be the teller of the story.

The treasure here is the "Thousand-Gold Monkey King Inkstone".

It was built during the Guangxu period. He, the advisor to Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi at that time, found a local famous craftsman to make Duan inkstone, using the precious Duanxi Laokeng Daxi travertine as raw material.

At first glance, the monkey pattern is not obvious. Wipe Yantai with a damp cloth, and the golden monkey will appear on the paper. The place where I traced the yellow line is the monkey's face. Can you see it?

You can see the precious fish brain jelly, rouge, fire torture and other natural patterns on its body. It looks like Like a monkey surrounded by peach trees. The monkey's eyes, nose, and mouth look lifelike.

There are also exhibitions of ceramics from past dynasties in the museum and an exhibition of natural resources of Guangdong Province. I won’t go into details today, they are both quite fun to visit. Especially the latter, quite photogenic.

The permanent exhibition is free, and you can get tickets with your ID card to visit. Reservation is based on a real-name system, and each person can reserve no more than 3 free admission tickets per reservation (children 1.4 meters and below are free of charge). 1,500 tickets can be reserved every day, while reservations are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Recently there was a special exhibition to pay tribute to the anti-epidemic workers, which is highly recommended. After all, it may be the biggest event in the country this year. "Together" was released recently. If you watch it with this exhibition, you can better understand the hard work of medical staff.

By the way, it recently exhibited a set of peripherals in conjunction with Lychee Culture, including earrings, notebooks, rulers, umbrellas, etc., which are quite popular. A great variety show about museums

"National Treasure"

When I talked about several cultural relics before, I mentioned "National Treasure".

I highly recommend everyone to watch it. Each episode of the program will take you to visit a great museum. Celebrities will take you to see different museum treasures in depth, such as Zheng Kai, Li Chen, Wang Kai and Liu Tao. Come be a guest guest, and even cosplay in person to tell stories, which is both interesting and learning culture.

While making each provincial museum a must-visit list when traveling, you can do some homework in advance through this program. When you go to the museum, you can know the past and present life of the treasures without having to read the explanations. This feeling How cool.

The first season mainly talks about 9 major museums:

Nanjing Museum, Hunan Provincial Museum, Shanghai Museum, Zhejiang Provincial Museum, Palace Museum, Henan Museum, Shaanxi History Museum, Liaoning Museum Provincial Museum, Hubei Provincial Museum.

A few new ones were added in the second season: Hebei Museum, Shanxi Museum, Shandong Museum, Guangdong Provincial Museum, Sichuan Museum, Yunnan Provincial Museum, Gansu Provincial Museum, and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Museum.

All of them are great restaurants that can be added to your travel list.

For the museums mentioned above, in addition to exchanging tickets on site, you can make reservations in advance directly on their official WeChat public account. It is also recommended that you make an appointment in advance, as there may be a queue on site.