Chifeng Museum

Chifeng Museum
赤峰博物馆

Address: 10A Fuhe street, Xincheng district, Chifeng city, Inner Mongolia autonomous region
Hours: 9:00-16:30 (No entry after 16:15)
Closed Mondays
General admission: Free
Tel: (+86-10) 0476-8255185

Chifeng city lies in the hinterland of North China, at the bordering area of Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Hebei and Liaoning provinces. Historically, it is a confluence of the steppe culture, Mongolian culture, and the Neolithic Hongshan Culture (ca.4000-3000 BC). The Chifeng Museum is a treasure trove gathering the precious relics and works of art of these cultures.

The museum holds more than 80,000 sets of cultural relics, including ceramics, bronzes, wooden and lacquer ware, jadeware, stoneware, bone objects, clam ware, ironware, gold and silver works, textiles, leather products, murals, paintings and jewelry, calligraphy and more. Of these items, 80 percent have come from archaeological excavations, while others were donated or collected elsewhere.
Among these collections, there are some exquisite and impressive highlights, such as a hooked cloud-shaped jade pendant and a stone figure-shaped sculpture of the Hongshan Culture, a phoenix-shaped pottery cup of the Zhaobaogou Culture (5400-4500 BC), a painted pottery lobed tripod cauldron (li) of the Lower Xiajiadian Culture (2000-1400BC), a coin-casting pottery mould of the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC- AD 8) and a tri-colore mandarin duck pot from the Liao Dynasty (947-1211).

What’s more, the museum's four halls for permanent exhibitions are a feast for the eyes. The preface hall on the first floor covers an area of over 1,000 square meters, presenting several cultures of the Neolithic period (ca.8000-2000 BC) in the local Chifeng area.

The second exhibition hall features the bronze culture of the northern grasslands, represented by the Lower and Upper Xiajiadian Culture (1000-600 BC). It is divided into three parts, including the Rise of Kingdoms, Wartime, and Heritage from the Warring States Period (475-221BC), Qin (221-207 BC) and Han dynasties (202 BC-AD 220).

The third exhibition hall is dedicated to the grassland civilization created by the Khitan Liao Empire. Specimens of ceramics, architecture, textiles, horsemanship, religious beliefs, coins, murals, metal and jade tools and funeral customs are displayed to illustrate the Khitan Liao culture.

Throughout the Liao Dynasty, the ruling center was always in today's Chifeng area, so the Liao Dynasty remnants in Chifeng were extremely plentiful, and the area became the center of Chinese and foreign scholars' study of the culture of the Khitan people.

In the fourth section of the Chifeng Museum, the history of Chifeng during the Yuan (1271-1368), Ming (1368-1644) and Qing dynasties (1644-1911) is presented. The section is titled the Golden River, and it showcases the rich national customs and local characteristics of the Mongolian folk culture in Chifeng which was created by the northern ethnic groups with the Mongolian at their core.

The construction of Chifeng Museum first began in 1958, and finished in 1987. Now, a brand-new modern building combining the functions of collection, research and display has stood on the original venue since 2010, covering an area of 11,000 square meters.

The museum was assessed as a national AAAA Tourist Attraction and ranked among the fourth batch of national first-class museums in December 2020.