Beijing Art Museum

Beijing Art Museum

Beijing Art Museum is designated as a patriotic education base.

Destination Introduction

Beijing Art Museum is located within Wan Shou Temple on North West Third Ring Road, Haidian District. In the fifth year of the Wanli era during the Ming Dynasty (1577), Empress Dowager Cisheng Xuanshiwenwen, mother of Emperor Shenzong Zhu Yijun, ordered the construction of a temple in western Beijing to house Buddhist scriptures, and bestowed upon it the name Wan Shou Temple. It was renovated and expanded during the reigns of Emperors Kangxi, Qianlong, and Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty.

Since the 1920s, Wan Shou Temple gradually fell into disrepair, and later served as a school and military barracks. In 1979, it was listed as a municipal cultural relics protection unit in Beijing. In June 1985, preparations began to establish the Beijing Art Museum here, which officially opened in August 1987. After further renovation, it reopened to the public in April 1994 with newly restored temple architecture and ten series of exhibitions.

Admission: 10 RMB, 5 RMB for students

Location: Located within Wan Shou Temple on North West Third Ring Road, Haidian District

The temple faces south and covers an area of 31,800 square meters. It features both grand halls and pavilions, as well as uniquely designed stele pavilions. There are also three artificial hills within the temple grounds, with temples built atop them, and below the hills are fairy bridges, ponds, and caves symbolizing China’s three famous Buddhist mountains: Mount Putuo, Mount Qingliang, and Mount Emei. The hills and their rear are planted with pine, cypress, and ginkgo trees, creating a heavenly earthly scene. Members of the Qing imperial family often stopped here to rest on their way between the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace, hence it earned the nickname “Little Forbidden City of the West.”

Beijing Art Museum currently houses a collection of over 50,000 ancient artworks, including treasures from the Neolithic Age, the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties, as well as the Ming and Qing Dynasties and modern periods, with a focus on Ming and Qing artifacts. The collection spans a wide range of categories, including historical stone rubbings, imperial porcelain, ancient coins and seals, antique furniture, court textiles, bronze ware, jade and stone artifacts, bamboo, wood, ivory, and horn carvings, lacquerware, and Buddhist statues.

Take bus routes 323, 374, 817, or 811 and get off at Wan Shou Temple Station, on the east side of the road.

Scenic Spot Location

No. 121, Wan Shou Temple, Haidian District, Beijing