Museums, Temples, and Historic Sights
At the 18th Party Congress, officials intending to highlight outgoing president Hú Jǐntào’s successes chanted a litany of statistics that resembled Máo-era announcements concerning combine harvesters:
China produced 558 feature films in 2011 compared with 140 in 2003; it now has 9,200 movie screens versus 1,953 in 2003; it has listed 43 cultural sites with the United Nations, the third-highest number in the world; it has set up 600,000 rural reading rooms and offers a free movie each month in villages; and it has 2,115 museums that do not charge for admission. Last year, it published 370,000 books, which officials said was more than any other country in the world. China Central Television has 249 million viewers in 171 countries. And the government has spent $30.4 million over the last decade to support 55 minority ethnic groups in China.
Ian Johnson, China, at Party Congress, Lauds its Cultural Advances in the New York Times, 11 November 2012
Just how many museums there are in Běijīng is, as with every other statistic about the city, a matter of dispute. Different Chinese media give figures of between 130 and 159 (and rising) but Běijīng is said to be second only to London (which has around 300 museums). What is certain is that there are many you probably won’t want to bother with, such as museums of watermelons, tap water, or Cephalostachyum (a species of small bamboo).
There are variations but admission at state-owned museums that still have entrance fees is typically free to children under 1m tall, and half price to those beween 1m and 1.2m tall, and there are marks on the wall near the ticket windows to check. Some museums require sight of your passport (which you should be carrying anyway as Chinese law requires it). Photography is widely forbidden, with or without flash, but this prohibition is widely ignored by Chinese visitors.
Closing times given in the guide are usually those at which ticket offices close. Although in theory, and signs may clearly state, that the museum remains open for a further half an hour to one hour, staff will usually immediately begin to close sections, or turn off lights, or start driving people out, sign or no sign, and regardless of whether you were sold a ticket two minutes ago or not. So especially for museums of any substance, go no later than the first part of the afternoon, and in general it’s best to make an early start. Parks and gardens open very early in the morning and many other museums and outdoor sights are open by 8am, all state-run museums by 9am, and private museums by 10am. For the most part all are open the same hours every day, although some museums close on either Monday or Tuesday. Museums and temples are generally closed by mid-afternoon, but parks and outdoor sights may stay open until sunset. Some operate shorter winter hours.
Few museums have information in any language other than Chinese. Typically, museum collections are still poorly lit, dusty and uncared for, except at the really big names, and sometimes there, too. Whole sections of a museum may be closed at random because someone hasn’t turned up for work, but don’t expect a discount or a refund. In museum shops items that you can find much cheaper in local markets are sold for outrageous sums, and books you can find in Xīnhuá bookshops and elsewhere for much less have stickers over their prices. Sections of temples and museums are sometimes turned over to other enterprises, as the members of its work unit look for ways to supplement their incomes.
Most museums follow the same pattern, presenting their collections in date order. As part of the propaganda process, displays are often carefully selected and labelled to promote a viewpoint, such as the willing subservience of a minority group to the imperial court, or the glory of Hàn traditions. Periods when the Hàn withdrew or were repelled, or when the minorities took power over the Hàn, are glossed over. Everywhere there is the sour reek of nationalism and expressions of racial and cultural superiority. Despite this there are some fine museums in Běijīng, and these are on the increase.
Misrepresentation of the true history of a site is commonplace, whether for political reasons intended to exalt the Communist Party or to put the blame for destruction wholly on foreigners. Credit is demanded by the government for restoration undertaken, without blame being accepted for neglect or deliberate destruction during the regime’s time in power, particularly following the occupation of Běijīng by the communists in 1949, during the Great Leap Forward campaign of the late 1950s, or during the Cultural Revolution of 1966–76. And, as Osbert Sitwell put it during his visit to Běijīng in 1934, ‘Restoration is often the favourite weapon of Siva the Destroyer, and can achieve more in a few weeks than whole centuries of decay.’
Grey cement is slapped on spalled brickwork and scored with lines to represent the original, garish paint replaces lacquer, strip lighting is mounted in interiors, and air conditioning on exteriors. Restoration in China often means complete rebuilding but even wholly reconstructed buildings are still given out to be original. One section of the Great Wall, ‘restored’ around 20 years ago, has in fact been wholly rebuilt from the ground up and joins a long list of such ‘20th-century Míng’ artefacts.
Discounts
Student and senior citizen identification will only very occasionally produce discounts, but anyone planning to visit several museums can reliably save money by purchasing the Běijīng Bówùguǎn Tōngpiào (北京博物馆通票, Běijīng Museums Pass) which comes in the form of a pocket-sized book and gives free or reduced-price admission to 115 museums (including a few other ‘attractions’ of only modest interest) around Běijīng often for two or more people. Half of these museums are now free anyway, but of those listed in the pass book in 2017, 57 had entrance fees which were either waived or discounted, typically for two people. Some with free entrance year-round are merely advertising, but others offer pass holders minor privileges.
The art of sales promotion isn’t widely understood, and sometimes two half-price tokens are combined to give one person free entry, although the pass-book forbids this. A few of the museums are big names, many are obscure, and some are eminently avoidable. Offers vary from year to year but the cost of the card, ¥120 in 2019, can typically be recovered by around four person-visits.
There may be minor anomalies. The 2012 pass offered access to the China Space Museum, which, since it is inside a rocket technology research facility, was actually off-limits not only to foreigners, but even to people from Hong Kong and Macau.
The cost of the pass tends to drop in price later in the year although the website expressly denies this, so if visiting in the autumn it’s worth asking for a discount when buying. The pass is available from museums that participate in the scheme, from 86 post offices across Běijīng, from several bookshops, and via assorted on-line methods such as WeChat or Táobǎo.
Sight names given in the pass-book are not always those used either by the sights themselves or in this book. See www.bowuguan.com.cn for the most up-to-date details of participating institutions and their offers, as well as lists of sellers and maps for finding them. The 2019 list of museums with entrance charges offering passholders free or reduced-price entrance and also mentioned in this book included:
Altar of Agriculture (Museum of Ancient Architecture)
Ancient Observatory
Běijīng Auto Museum
Běijīng Botanical Gardens
Běijīng Planetarium
Běijīng Police Museum
Běijīng World Art Museum
Bell Tower
China Agriculture Museum
China Aviation Museum
China Film Museum
China Railway Museum and China Railway Museum (Zhèngyáng Mén Branch)
China Red Sandalwood Museum
Císhàn Sì
Confucius Temple and Imperial College
Dà Jué Sì
Dōng Yuè Miào (Folk Arts Museum)
Drum Tower
Fǎ Hǎi Sì (Museum of Buddhist Literature and Heritage)
Grand View Garden
Great Bell Temple
Guānfù Classic Art Museum
Guō Mòruò Museum
Mílù Yuàn
Museum of Ancient Pottery Civilisation
Museum of Imperial Examination Tablets
Paleozoological Museum of China
Poly Art Museum
Shuǐ Guǎn Great Wall
Sōng Shān Ancient Cave Dwellings
Temple of Ancient Monarchs
Tián Yì Mù
Vintage Car Museum (see end of entry)
Wángfǔ Jǐng Paleolithic Museum
Wànshòu Sì (Běijīng Art Museum)
White Dagoba Temple
Yúnjū Sì
Zhān Tiānyòu Museum
Zhèngyàng Mén
Zhìhuà Sì (Běijīng Cultural Exchange Museum)
For one or two days around International Museum Day (18 May) there may be free or heavily discounted entry to a selection of temporary exhibitions at galleries around the city, many in the Dà Shānzi 798 Art District. See local English-language media for details of how to acquire the one-day art pass necessary.
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