China Three Gorges Museum

Growing out of the Chongqing Museum (1951-2005), China Three Gorges Museum locates at the west part of the People's Square of Chongqing. The 30,000-square-meter large Three Gorges Museum is a museum that showcases the history and achievement of Three Gorges. The collection of over 170,000 pieces of cultural relics of ancient China even covers the civilization that thriving along the Yangtze River.

The 4-storey splendid museum is divided into 4 Basic Exhibition Halls, 6 Special Exhibition Halls, 3 temporary Exhibition Halls, and 1 Round-Screen Cinema.

If you want to know something about the history of Chongqing city, the achievement of the Three Gorges and the culture of nearby regions, you may find it helpful to visit the 4 Basic Exhibition Halls: "The Splendid Three Gorges", "the Urban Development of Chongqing", "Anti-Japanese Days" and "Far-Ancient Ba Yu" which aims to reflect the history from the first settlers in this plain all the way through to the growing up of the central-plain culture of China.

If you are interested in archaeology and Chinese ancient dynasties, you may prefer to visit the 6 Special Exhibition Halls, which respectively are "The Currencies in Different Periods of China" "Minority Nationality Custom in Southwest China" "The Sculpture in Han Dynasty" "Paintings and Calligraphies in Different Historical Periods" "Cultural Relics Donated by Mr. Li Chuli" "Ceramics in Different Periods of China". These halls display a great number of historic or artistic relics dating from 1600 BC to modern China, bringing a feast for your eyes.

The downside of the museum is that information on the displays in English is sparse, but you can rent an English audio tour.