The National Museum of China (中国国家博物馆) is the national museum of China. It flanks the eastern side of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. The museum's mission is to educate about the arts and history of China. It is a level-1 public welfare institution funded by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China.
Front foyer with model of the Temple of Heaven, in 2014The museum was established in 2003[1] by the merging of the two separate museums that had occupied the same building since 1959: the Museum of the Chinese Revolution in the northern wing (originating in the Office of the National Museum of the Revolution founded in 1950 to preserve the legacy of the 1949 revolution) and the National Museum of Chinese History in the southern wing (with origins in both the Beijing National History Museum, founded in 1949, and the Preliminary Office of the National History Museum, founded in 1912, tasked to safeguard China's larger historical legacy).
The building was completed in 1959 as one of the Ten Great Buildings celebrating the ten-year anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. It complements the opposing Great Hall of the People that was built at the same time. The structure sits on 6.5 hectares (16 acres) and has a frontal length of 313 metres (1,027 ft), a height of four stories totaling 40 metres (130 ft), and a width of 149 metres (489 ft).[2] The front displays ten square pillars at its center.
West Hall with exhibition of China Manned Space Program in 2023After four years of renovation, the museum reopened on March 17, 2011, with 28 new exhibition halls, more than triple the previous exhibition space, and state of the art exhibition and storage facilities. It has a total floor space of nearly 200,000 m2 (2.2 million square feet) to display.[3] The renovations were designed by the German firm Gerkan, Marg and Partners.[4]
The museum's "Road to Rejuvenation" exhibit was the site for Xi Jinping's November 2012 articulation of the Chinese Dream political concept.[5]: 56 The first half of the exhibit documented China's century of humiliation.[5]: 56 The second half depicted China's virtues in overcoming that adversity, the Chinese Communist Revolution, and establishing the People's Republic of China.[5]: 56-57 After touring the exhibit, Xi addressed the media, announcing, "Realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is the greatest dream of the Chinese nation in modern times."[5]: 57
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum was closed for a large part of 2020, and attendance plunged by 78 percent to 1,600,000. Nonetheless, in 2021 it was in second place in the list of most-visited art museums, after the Louvre Museum.[6]
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