China Telecom Museum

China Telecom Museum

The China Telecom Museum is a science education base.

The China Telecom Museum is located on the northeast side of the Xuezhi Intersection in Haidian District, Beijing, within the Zhongguancun Science and Technology Development Park, an area in Haidian known for its concentration of scientific and cultural institutions. The museum covers an exhibition area of over 7,000 square meters, houses a collection of more than 17,000 cultural relics, and features four exhibition halls. During the former Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications period, under the direction of the Ministry’s Postal and Telecommunications Historical Center, the internal exhibition layout of the museum was completed in August 1999, and the China Telecom Museum officially opened to the public in October 2001. The China Telecom Museum strives to become a window that fully showcases the historical culture and developmental achievements of China's communications industry; a gallery featuring cutting-edge future communication technologies; a second classroom for science education on communication technology for young people; a bridge connecting communication enterprises with the general audience and users; a link between communication operators and manufacturers; and a base for international exchange of technology and culture within the global communications industry. The China Telecom Museum is now greeting visitors from all over with a brand-new spirit. The museum doesn’t just cover what is commonly understood as telecommunications (i.e., telephones) today, but instead approaches the topic from the perspective of information transmission, covering mail delivery, package mailing, telegraphy, telephony, mobile communications, satellite communication, and even the principles of online conferencing. The second and third floors of the museum are exhibition areas. The second floor mainly focuses on historical introductions, divided into three halls for ancient, modern, and contemporary periods, while the third floor primarily introduces the modern telecommunications industry. The exhibitions on the second floor contain a wealth of information, covering everything from the use of beacon fires to transmit messages during the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, to modern satellite communications.

The ancient exhibits mainly consist of text and image displays, while the modern history section contains many physical artifacts such as postmarks, clothing worn by postal workers during the Taiping Rebellion, a large number of preserved letters, a 1:1 scale model of a Qing Dynasty post office, wax figures of postal workers, and more. The contemporary section explains the changes in the postal industry after the liberation, and you’ll learn that the split between postal and telecommunications services actually happened multiple times. You can also see the old crank telephones and switchboards used in your childhood. On the third floor, I mainly learned how mail is sorted—it turns out sorting centers rely mainly on machines that recognize postal codes. I'm not sure how the recognition program for those big machines works. Other content on the third floor might also be found in science museums—such as the principles of telephony, explanations of online conferencing, displays of switches, introductions to cellular networks, and demonstrations of video-on-demand systems.

The China Telecom Museum houses a collection of over a thousand communication-related artifacts. Among them, treasures rarely seen elsewhere include a late Qing Dynasty dragon-patterned telephone, a Wheatstone gravity telegraph, and a common battery manual switchboard. These exhibits, together with landscapes, dioramas, models, paintings, and sculptures, create a comprehensive display of the development of China’s communications. Here, you can also see some of the most advanced communication technologies and products available today, with each communication system accompanied by multimedia touchscreens that provide related knowledge. Visitors can try operating communication equipment themselves and personally experience the charm of modern communication technology.

Source: Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development

Further Reading:

· National Second-Class Museum of China