Inner Mongolia Museum

Inner Mongolia Museum
内蒙古博物院

Address: 27 East Xinhua Street, Xincheng district, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia autonomous region
Hours: 9:00 - 17:00 (no entry after 16:00 )
Closed Mondays
General admission: Free (passport required for entry)

Initially built in 1957, Inner Mongolia Museum is the region’s largest comprehensive museum boasting numerous collections of historical artifacts and hosting a wide variety of exhibitions related to culture and art. The museum also supports various research efforts.

Situated in Hohhot, the museum covers 64,000 square meters, with 15,000 square meters allocated for exhibition halls.

The museum is characterized by its collection of paleontological fossils, Khitan historical relics and Mongolian artifacts. It houses more than 150,000 items, of which over 5,600 are considered precious relics and 650 are nationally recognized first-grade sets.

Collections vary from natural discoveries to the ancient history of Inner Mongolia as well as pieces depicting the daily lives of tribes in modern times. Rarely seen artifacts relating to the ancient tribes known as Xiongnu, Xianbei and Khitan offer value for history studies, as does the collection dedicated to Genghis Khan.

The museum has hosted over 90 exhibitions since 2008. It currently receives up to 13,000 visitors each day, with annual visitor numbers recorded at over 2 million.

The museum features four main exhibition halls: Display of Ancient Animals' Remains, Display of Historical Relics, Display of Folk Relics and Display of Revolutionary Relics.

The Display of Ancient Animals' Remains is an exhibition of the fossils of extinct species and recent archeological finds, with one of China's best collections of fossilized remains, including a number of dinosaurs, showing the evolution of ancient animal life.

Among the collections, the fossils of dinosaurs and mastodons are highlights. A giant complete skeleton of a woolly rhinoceros, which was unearthed from a coal mine in Manzhouli, gets everybody’s attention as soon as they enter the museum. Dinosaur fans will be thrilled to see these priceless collections of bone fossils of Anatosaurus and Psittacosaurus, Protoceratops, and embryos of Stegosaurus and Pterosauria that date back to the Cretaceous Era and the Cenozoic Era.

The Display of Historical Relics exhibits the history of Inner Mongolia and introduces the Dayao Artifacts Manufacturing Workshop of the early Paleolithic Age, Dayao Culture and Hetao Culture. There is also a display of cultural relics from the eight ethnic groups that have lived in the area for generations, as well as artifacts representing local grassland culture such as hunting implements, saddles, leather overcoats, a model yurt (Mongolian tent), costumes and cooking implements.

The Display of Folk Relics features the customs of ethnic groups in Inner Mongolia, reflecting daily life in the region, as well as local production, literature, art, and religion.

The Display of Revolutionary Relics is a record of what ethnic Mongolians achieved during their revolution from 1921 to 1949.

The museum also utilizes the latest technologies to help visitors get the most from their visit, with features such as interactive digital displays.