Shenyang Financial Museum

Shenyang Financial Museum

Shenyang Financial Museum is located at No. 240 Chaoyang Street, Shenhe District, Shenyang City. The museum building is an important part of the Zhang’s Mansion architectural complex, a national-level cultural heritage site. It covers an area of 3,862?, with a building area of about 7,500? and an exhibition area of 5,100?. It is currently the largest, most comprehensive, and most visitor-participatory financial museum in China.

The exhibitions at Shenyang Financial Museum are divided into several sections, including the Lobby Hall, the Restored Display of the Bank President’s Office at the Frontier Bank, the Northeast Finance Exhibition, the Story of Money, the Special Exhibition on Renminbi, the Restored Display of the Underground Vault, the Financial Theme Park, and Exchange Exhibitions, totaling 23 exhibition halls. Over 2,800 cultural relics are displayed, many of which hold high artistic and historical research value, with some being unique surviving artifacts.

The Lobby Hall utilizes the original trading hall of the Frontier Bank from that era, recreating the scene of the bank in operation in the late 1920s through more than 80 lifelike wax figures. The wax figures are exquisitely crafted, with realistic expressions and a strong sense of daily life, achieving an exceptional level of realism.

In harmony with the original trading hall, the museum has also restored the Bank President’s Office using the original space. The noble and elegant floor-standing clock, three sets of imitation Western-style tall cabinets, and a floor-to-ceiling screen integrating a coat rack, shoe cabinet, and vanity mirror are all original historical items.

The second-floor exhibition “The Story of Money” is the main feature of the Financial Museum. Presented in the first-person narrative, it takes visitors through the entire evolution of human society—from barter trade in primitive times to the emergence, development, and eventual decline of currency. This exhibition displays approximately 1,700 cultural relics. Artifacts such as the earliest shell money used by humans over 4,000 years ago, China’s earliest gold coinage, the world’s smallest banknote by size, the world’s earliest plastic currency, the currency with the highest denomination in history, dozens of top-tier stock certificates nationwide, and other rare and mostly unique items in the collection are all exhibited here.

The final section—the Financial Theme Park—is the largest exhibition hall in Shenyang Financial Museum, covering an area of 700 square meters. Creating a theme park-style exhibition within a museum to enhance viewing points and interactive experiences, integrating knowledge, fun, and participation, is a new attempt in China. In addition to introducing major global financial centers (such as Wall Street in the U.S., the European Development Bank, Pudong in Shanghai, Tokyo in Japan, etc.) through large color panels and three-dimensional sculptures, the exhibition mainly utilizes over 20 electronic devices to engage visitors directly. These include financial knowledge quizzes, matching currency patterns with their respective countries, identifying genuine and counterfeit money, filling out transfer checks, and minting metal souvenirs—allowing visitors to learn a wealth of financial knowledge through active participation.

As a new window for Shenyang to the outside world, Shenyang Financial Museum uses the historic Frontier Bank as its foundation, and the museum building itself holds significant value as a historical site. Hosting a financial-themed exhibition within a former bank building is also an extraordinary concept. The rich exhibition content and exquisite artistic presentation have received widespread acclaim from all visitors. Visiting Shenyang Financial Museum not only imparts extensive knowledge about currency and finance but also offers visitors an enriching artistic experience.