Huaibei Museum (Museum of the Sui-Tang Dynasties Grand Canal)

Huaibei Museum (Museum of the Sui-Tang Dynasties Grand Canal)
淮北市博物馆（隋唐大运河博物馆）

Address: 1 Bowuguan Road, Xiangshan district, Huaibei city, Anhui province
Opening hours: 8:30 am -11:30 am, 2:30 pm -5:30 pm (Tuesday - Sunday)
Closed Mondays (except for public holidays)
General admission: Free
Tel: (+86-561) 3922071
Email: huaibeibwg@126.com
The daily visitor capacity is 1,000 people (500 in the morning and afternoon, respectively) to ensure a pleasant visiting experience and the exhibits' safety.

Huaibei Museum is also known as the Museum of the Sui-Tang Dynasties Grand Canal. It was established early in 1976, with its two names inscribed respectively by China's celebrated archeologist and poet Guo Moruo (1892-1978) and the erudite architectural historian Luo Zhewen (1924-2012). In 2004, the museum’s new building was inaugurated and opened to the public.

Huaibei is a city that started its civilization as early as the Neolithic era. It was the seat of four ancient states that flourished about 3,000 years ago.

The Huaibei Museum is a cultural facility telling stories of the local history and archeological finds. It offers a plethora of unearthed relics spanning almost 1,000 years from the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC) to the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), revealing the cultural, political and economic brilliance of the city throughout history.

The museum also houses the archeological site of a section of the Grand Canal watercourse dating to between the Sui and Tang dynasties (581-907). The place was discovered in 1999 when roads in Liuzi county were under expansion.

Among the unearthed items were sunken boats from the Tang Dynasty, stone architecture dating to the Song Dynasty (960-1279), assorted stoneware and porcelain produced by more than 20 kilns across the country, and nearly a hundred thousand ceramic shards. The finds considerably expanded the collection of Huaibei Museum and helped establish the museum as a prominent spreader of China's Grand Canal culture.