Museums in Jiangsu

Nanjing Museum

Nanjing museum is China’s first comprehensive state museum. At present, it has become a large history and art museum with 400,000 collections and 200,000 volumes of professional publications. With two thirds of its collections at national levels, the museum’s largest collection are Qing-Court porcelains, its most distinctive collection are culture relics from ethnic minority groups in southwest China and its most valuable collections in terms of scientific research values are unearthed objects from the remains of Kingdom of Yin.

Nanjing Folk Customs Museum

Housed in a Qing dynasty mansion, Nanjing Folk Customs Museum is located near the Fuzimiao area. The halls of the mansion have been converted into period rooms illustrating the different facets of life in traditional China. One of the most magnificent items is a lavishly decorated sedan chair used to carry the new bridge to her new home, completely covered in intricate carvings. There are also large collections of the elaborate and colorful costumes from the various styles of Chinese opera.

Suzhou Gardens Museum

Suzhou Gardens Museum was established In order to commemorate the 2,500th anniversary year of Suzhou. It covers an area of 1,696 square meters, and with an architectural space of 1,350 square meters. There are four exhibition halls. The first describes the objective reasons for basing such superlative gardens in Suzhou; the second describes the history of the gardens; the third hall introduces the contours and styles of Suzhou's ancient gardens as they are today, as well as the international influence of these gardens; the fourth introduces garden construction. The main displays in this museum are models that show arrangements of gardens, especially those that no longer exist.

Suzhou Museum

Suzhou Museum has been a highly-regarded regional museum with a number of significant Chinese cultural relics. A new museum designed by world famous architect I.M.Pei was completed in October 2006, covering over 10,700 square meters and located at the cross of Dongbei Street and Qimen Road. The design of this new museum visually complements the traditional architecture of Zhong Wang Fu. The new museum houses over 30000 cultural relics --- most notably for excavated artifacts, Ming and Qing Dynasty paintings and calligraphy, and ancient arts and crafts.

Suzhou Arts and Crafts Museum

Suzhou's finely crafted art objects have long drawn visitors and merchants to the city, and the newly opened Suzhou Arts and Crafts Museum is dedicated to these traditional crafts. In addition to galleries displaying top-quality pieces, its real highlight is a working studio where master craftsmen demonstrate their skills.  Some of the most stunning pieces on display in the museum are examples of traditional sandalwood and jade carving.  Superb craftsmen apply their skills in creating small, finely worked objects to massive pieces of wood and jade.  

Wuxi City Museum

The Wuxi City Museum is a local comprehensive museum of China. The Museum has collected over 10,000 items of collection, including ceramics, stone and jade articles, gold vessel and silverware, lacquer ware and wooden articles, carvings, painting and calligraphy, embroidery and revolutionary relics, of which over 100 items belong to Class One Collection. The basic exhibition of the Museum is the Display of Wuxi History, divided into the ancient Wuxi and the modern Wuxi.

Yixing Teapot Museum

Yixing teapots have long been known in China for their simple beauty and unique tea brewing qualities. The museum was erected nearly 50 years ago and it covers more than 20,000 square meters of land. The construction has an area of 3,000 square meters and is the largest one of its type.

Xuzhou Museum

Xuzhou Museum is situated on the north slope of Yunlong Hill and covers an area of 12,000 square meters. The museum sits in the original site of the temporary imperial palace of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1736 to 1795). Lots of exquisite cultural relics of the Han Dynasty are exhibited in Xuzhou Museum. Among which, the most valuable are the jade clothes interwoven with silver threads, the gild beast ink stone and the copper bull lamp.

Gallery of Stone sculptures of Han Dynasty

Xuzhou is the place where most of stone sculptures of Han Dynasty have been found, and up to now more than 700 sculpture stones have been unearthed. With an area of 10,000 square meters, Xuzhou Gallery of Stone Sculptures of Han Dynasty is a complex of buildings in the Han-Tang-style. It is a special museum established to collect, display and study the stone sculptures of Han Dynasty, with more than 500 precious sculpture stones preserved. From the sculptures, we can see not only the rich people’s rejoicing in fairyland and luxury in mortal life, but also the common people’s work and life. A visit to Gallery of Stone Sculptures of Han Dynasty will be like traveling in the historic painted corridor where inspiration, knowledge and artistic treat can be obtained.

Museum of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Han Dynasty

The Xuzhou Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Han Dynasty is another significant discovery after Xian Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Dynasty. As the funerary objects of Prince of Chu, more than 4000 pieces of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses have been unearthed and with vivid expression and bold outline, they are of high artistic value. The Xuzhou Museum of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Han Dynasty is built on the original site of the discovery, occupying an area of 20,400 square meters. Clay figures of warriors of various forms are laid in an orderly manner inside six pits representing an underground army full of power and grandeur.

Xuzhou Folk-Custom Museum

Xuzhou Folk-Custom Museum stands on the urban area of Xuzhou and occupies an area of 6,000 sq meters (1.5 acres). It opened in April, 2000 and is built on the residential site from the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. The museum's theme focuses on folk relics and folk culture. It contains over 160 rooms that show the strong local flavor of old residential houses in Xuzhou.

Nantong City Museum

The Nantong City Museum is housed in Zhang's European style villa on Haonan Road. The small and forlorn collection of local archaeological finds is less interesting than the villa itself, where Zhang was able to kick back in Victorian comfort after a hard day's modernizing. The Zhonglou Square also has another symbol of Zhang Jian's ideals - one of the city's old watch towers was transformed into the centerpiece of a modern public square by adding a tall English style clock tower. 

Zhenjiang Museum

Zhenjiang Museum is a local historical and art museum in China. The museum was built in 1958 and constructed based on five Italian-style architectures that are located near the river and on the hill in the north of Mount Yuntai in Zhenjiang City. There is a collection of 30,000 articles of relics from Neolithic Age to the present. In addition, there are 92,804 articles of ancient books, including 532 articles of well edited book.

Changzhou Museum

Changzhou Museum was built in 1958. It has developed and expanded in several decades and now occupies an area of 10,500 square meters. It holds over 10,000 artifacts representing many historical eras of Changzhou, a city with 2,500 years of rich history. The collection includes precious stone sculptures, historic paintings, and antique porcelains. The museum structural design reflects the past of this ancient city.