Museums of Qinghai of different types which feature assorted subjects and topics that display and exhibit a variety of artifacts and historical objects.
1. The Qinghai Provincial Museum at the Xinning Square
The Qinghai Provincial Museum at the Xinning Square in Chengxi District, Xining, is a national AAAA tourist attraction. The museum covers an area of 22,800 square meters. It has nine exhibition halls with a total area of 9,146 square meters.
Major exhibits are displayed in three exhibition sections the Exhibition of Pre-history Civilization in Qinghai, the Exhibition of Ethnic Cultural Heritage in Qinghai, and the Exhibition of Buddhist Art. The museum was nominated for China’s Top 10 Exhibitions in 2001-2002.
Since its founding, the museum has been committed to the collection and research of the province’s history, ethnicity, folk customs and religion. Today, it houses more than 47,000 pieces of various cultural relics, demonstrating Qinghai’s development in different historical periods.
Transport: TakeBusNo.2, 9, 13 or 16to the Xinning Square.
2. Tibetan Medicine Museum of China
The Tibetan Medicine Museum of China is located at 36 Jing’erlu Road in the Bioscience Park, Xining. It is a national AAAA tourist attraction, the first Tibetan medicine museum in the world and the only museum exclusively devoted to Tibetan culture in China. Its functions are to protect, do research on and serve as a showcase of Tibetan medicine, Tibetan folk customs and Tibetan Buddhism.
“The Panorama of Tibetan Colored Paintings,” which is reputed as an encyclopedic drawing of Tibetan culture and arts, is the most valuable exhibit in the museum. It took Tangka painting master Zongzhe Lajie 27 years to conceive the work and more than 400 leading Tibetan, Mongolian, Han and Tu artists from Tibet, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan four years to finish it.
Transport: One can take bus No.34 to the Bioscience Park (Shengwuyuan).
3. Xinlu-Ma Bufang’s Former Residence (Qinghai Folk Custom Museum)
Xinlu at 13 Weiminxiang, Chengdong District, Xining, is a national AAAA tourist attraction. It is the former residence of Ma Bufang, Governor of Qinghai Province of the Kuomintang Government. It is the best preserved private residence dating back to the days of the Republic of China in Qinghai. The residence consists of a number of courtyards, houses of various styles and a garden, featuring an orderly layout and a harmonious structure. It is a well preserved residential building complex in Qinghai and the only one in China that uses white marble to line walls on a large scale.
Designated as a key cultural heritage site under the protection of the provincial government in 1986, Xinlu now also serves as the Qinghai Folk Custom Museum. In its six exhibition halls devoted respectively to the Han, Tibetan, Hui, Mongolian, Tu and Salar ethnic groups, the museum showcases the costumes, daily lives, wedding and funeral traditions, sports, religious faiths and festivals of different ethnic groups in Qinghai.
Transport: One can get there by bus No.3, 7, 17, 26 or 103.
4. Liuwan Colored Pottery Museum
The museum is located to the north of Liuwancun Village, Gaomiao Town, Ledu County, 77 kilometers from the urban area of Xining. The museum sits on the site of a cemetery from the late Primitive Society, dating back to about 4,000-7,000 years ago.
In the spring of 1974, a large number of colored potteries were unearthed on the site, including those of the Banshan, Xindian, and Machang branches of the Majiayao Culture and those of the Kayue Culture. The pottery objects unearthed there surpass those unearthed from the Yangshao Culture ruins in Banpo, Xi’an, both in number and variety.
Ledu County has unearthed the largest number of colored potteries in Qinghai Province and the neighboring Gansu Province. These colorful potteries feature complicated pat terns, unique styles, neat shapes, exquisite designs and symmetrical structures, reflecting the very high atheistic level of that time. Housing nearly 20,000 pieces of colored pottery, the museum is the largest of its kind in China.
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