Open to public from 2005, Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum is a free museum built to protect, research, and exhibit the history and culture in Chongqing and Three Gorges area. Located at the central axis of the Great Hall of People of Chongqing, the museum covers an area of 3 hectares, with a 4.25 hectares’ building area. The basement level one is used as storeroom and garage, while the four floors above the ground are used as exhibition hall, lecture hall and auxiliary facilities office.
The predecessor of Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum is Southwest Museum, which is founded in 1951. It was renamed as Chongqing Museum in 1955, and again as Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum in 2000, and it opened to public as Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum in 2005. With the development of about 60 years, the museum now has collected over 180,000 cultural relics, including ancient human specimen, cultural relics of Three Gorges and Yangtze River, bronze wares of the Ba and Shu States, cultural relics of Han Dynasty (BC202 ~ AD8, AD25 ~ AD220), cultural relics of southwestern nationalities and paintings, calligraphies and Chinese zither of Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. At present, the museum has 10 permanentexhibitions, and annual average temporary exhibitions are about 40.
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There are 10 permanent exhibitions in total, including four basic exhibition and 6 special topic exhibitions. Besides that, there are one circular-screen movie theater, one semi-scene painting exhibition hall, one tourist practice center and three temporary exhibitions.
Among the 10 permanent exhibitions, there are four basic exhibitions. “Marvelous Three Gorges”exhibits the history, culture and humanistic spirit of the Three Gorges with abundant cultural relics and datum. “Ancient Ba–Yu” exhibits the cultural relics from the Stone Age and Bronze Age, showing the ancient civilization of Chongqing by tracing back to the culture root 3000 years ago. “Chongqing: Journey to Urbanization”shows important people and events in 20th century which had a great impact to Chongqing’s opportunity and development, including the change of the city, how it becomes the commercial center, and the rising of its industry, etc. “Anti-Japanese War Period”reflects the great efforts made by Chongqing city and Chongqing people during the war time. As for the rest 6 exhibitions, each of them is specialized in exhibiting one kind of cultural relics, including Cultural Relics Donated by Mr. Li Chuli, Calligraphies and Paintings of Previous Dynasties, Chinaware of Previous Dynasties, Coins of Previous Dynasties, Sculpture Arts of Han Dynasty, and Southwester China Folk Customs.
The Three Gorges Circular-screen Movie is free to public and tourists can watch it at the first floor. The movie was shot and produced by CCTV and Central Newsreel and Documentary Film Studio. By using high-tech movie means, the aerial video reflects the natural scenery and culture customs of Three Gorges before the reservoir was impounded. It’s a permanent memorial to the Three Gorges landscape before the Three Gorges project. The movie will last about 22 minutes, and it will be played three times a day. The show time is 11:30, 14:30 and 15:30. This is the great chance to see the panoramic view of Three Gorges from various angles.
There are three temporary exhibition halls in the museum. They are mainly used to hold domestic and international cultural communication activities or exhibitions, and at the same time, arrange themed exhibitions when there are important anniversaries, major festivals and significant ceremonies.
The museum also provide tourist practice center to communicate with its visitors. In this practice center, teenagers can participate in the stimulated archaeological activities of Three Gorges, and experience the exploration and excavation process. While in the interaction of calligraphy and painting, visitors can learn how to appreciate the calligraphy and painting under the guidance of an expert, and visitors can also learn to mount a picture. As for the porcelain, visitors can duplicate it with the guidance of the staffs in the museum. All these interaction activities are designed to help visitors acquire related knowledge and skills in a more relaxing way.
Marvelous Three Gorges
Ancient Ba-Yu
Pottery Figurine in Han Dynasty
Circular-screen Movie of Three Gorges
Chongqing People’s Assembly Hall faces Three Gorges Museum across Renmin Road. The hall is composed of Chongqing People’s Square and a group of imposing archaized ethnic buildings, which has attracted many tourists to take selfies and group photos.
Walking from Three Gorges Museum to Chongqing People’s Assembly Hall needs only 5 minutes around. If you are going to visit the museum, you are highly suggested to have a short visit to the People’s Assembly Hall too. Its huge and distinctive greenish glazed dome, scarlet columns and elaborately carved pillars and other structural elements will never let you down.
Address: No 173, Renmin Road, Yuzhong District, Chongqing (重庆市渝中区人民路173号，重庆人民大礼堂)
Chongqing People’s Assembly Hall
Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum is located at the Yuzhong District, which is the city center of Chongqing, and tourists can reach the museum easily by taxi, rail transit lines and public buses. Tourists can take rail transit line 2 to Zengjiayan stop and walk about 500m to get to the museum, or they can take rail transit line 3 and get off at Niujiaotuo stop, and then walk about 1km to the museum. For the public bus, the museum can be reached by bus No.132, 145, 181, 261, 262, 265, 421, 829, 862, 886, 881, 152, 215, etc.
By Flight: the museum is about 25km from Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport, and tourists can take rail transit line 3 from the airport, and then get off at Niujiaotuo, and then walk about ten minutes to the museum. This will take about 1.5 hours. You can also take taxi or private car to there, and this will take about 1 hour.
By Train: the museum is very close to Chongqing Railway Station, and the direct distance between them is about 1.3km. It’s suggested to take a taxi to from the railway station, and it will only cost you several minutes to get there. And the taxi fee is about 10 yuan.
Chongqing Travel Map
Tourists usually visit Three Gorges Museum in the morning of their One-day Chongqing tour to avoid the crowds in the afternoon. After the museum visit, they will have their lunch and then go to Liziba Station on Line 2 to appreciate amazing house-crossing metro trains up close. Before the night falls on that day, they will travel up to E‘ling Park to have a panorama view of Chongqing city. And the rest hours of the day are for them to discover the splendid Chongqing Night View at Hongya Cave and have authentic hot pot meals there.
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Tourist Idea: Most visitors travel Chongqing City before boarding their downstream Yangtze River cruise ship at night (18:00-21:00). If you are going to have such a tour too, remember to leave yourself enough time to catch your ship at Chaotianmen Dock. And please notice that dinner on the embarkation night is not included in your Yangtze River cruise tour. Treat yourself something you like to eat before boarding your ship.
Liziba House Crossing Metro in Chongqing
The museum is free to public and it opens from 9:00 ~ 17:00 (closed on Monday), and it will stop receiving tourists from 16:00. On official holidays in China, like Spring Festival and National Day, it will extend its opening hours properly. The museum will accept visitors no more than 5000 people for a day, and if the sightseeing group is over 200 people, then the group need to make a reservation two days ahead.
The museum will provide tour guide service for tourist. There are three exhibition halls have English tour guide service, and they are Marvelous Three Gorges, Ancient Ba-Yu and Chongqing: Journey to Urbanization. You can find the tour guide at the reception center in the first floor.
Service time: from 9:00 to 17:00 (11:30 ~ 12:30 will suspend to send out tour guide, 16:00 ~ 17:00 will stop to send out tour guide).
Service length: 1 hour per time
Fees: ¥150
Tourists can also rent an audio guide machine at the reception center in the first floor. The audio guide machine provides several languages, including Chinese, English, Russian, French, Japanese and Korean.
Service Range: Marvelous Three Gorges, Ancient Ba-Yu, Chongqing: Journey to Urbanization, Cultural Relics Donated by Mr. Li Chuli, Chinaware of Previous Dynasties, Coins of Previous Dynasties, Sculpture Arts of Han Dynasty.
Fees: ¥20/piece, and the guarantee deposit is ¥100/piece, and you need to rent it by presenting your valid documentation, like passport.
Rent time: from 9:00 ~ 17:00
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