Daqing Museum

Daqing Museum

Daqing Museum is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction and a science education base.

The Daqing City Museum is affiliated with the Daqing Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Press and Publication, and is a fully government-funded public institution. Its predecessor was the Daqing Exhibition Hall, established in 1964. Its office location has changed several times. In 1975, the Daqing Exhibition Hall, located north of the city’s Children’s Park, was officially completed. During the oilfield development and construction period of the 1970s and 1980s, it played an important role in promoting the spirit of Daqing and the Iron Man spirit. In 1991, the exhibition on the deeds of Iron Man Wang Jinxi was relocated in its entirety to the former Iron Man Memorial Hall.

In 1998, during the institutional reform of public institutions, it was renamed Daqing Museum. In 2001, the Daqing Cultural Relics Management Station and the Daqing Museum began operating together. In July 2005, construction began on the new building of Daqing Museum. On June 18, 2008, the natural history section of the new museum opened to the public free of charge. In July 2009, it was designated as a National Second-Class Museum by the National Cultural Heritage Administration. In December 2009, it was recognized as a National Science Education Base. On November 22, 2011, the second phase of the Daqing Museum’s exhibition project was completed and opened to the public in full.

Daqing Museum is the first comprehensive museum in China dedicated to the themes of the Quaternary paleoenvironment, paleo-animals, and paleo-humans of Northeast China. It houses over 200,000 fossils, specimens, and cultural relics, filling the domestic gap in the systematic collection of Quaternary mammal fossils in Northeast China. It has become one of the museums with the most complete range and largest quantity of mammoth–woolly rhinoceros fauna fossils in China and even the world.

Daqing Museum features three exhibitions: “The Natural Environment of the Northeast Quaternary,” “Mammals of the Northeast Quaternary,” and “Ancient Human Civilization in the Daqing Region.” Through the evolutionary history spanning millions of years and fossil exhibits, visitors can understand the dramatic changes in the natural and human history of the Daqing region. While appreciating the beauty and intrigue of ancient lakes, animals, and humans, tracing their origins, and learning from the past to understand the present, visitors can develop a deeper love for Daqing, this beautiful city and home.

The lobby of Daqing Museum is a comprehensive representation of the museum’s overall exhibition theme and characteristics. The lobby display consists of three parts: granite relief carvings, bronze sculptures, and an underground fossil burial site. A massive circular granite relief depicts a harmonious coexistence between the ancient natural environment, ancient humans, and ancient animals of the Northeast Quaternary. Mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, and wild Asian bison are typical representatives of the Northeast Quaternary mammal fauna. Three groups of vivid, uniquely shaped bronze sculptures highlight the grandeur and coexistence of the animal group. The circular fossil reconstruction burial site recreates the original appearance of fossil burials within Quaternary strata. The lobby aims for a unified and solemn spatial style, with a prominent theme, distinctive features, strong visual impact, and better reflects the cultural essence of the museum.

The “Natural Environment of the Northeast Quaternary” exhibition primarily showcases the evolution of Daqing’s natural ecology and the richness of its resources. Using techniques such as lake wetland and underwater tunnel landscape displays, stratigraphic core specimen exhibits, and multimedia sandbox model demonstrations, it organically combines the formation and condition of Daqing’s lake wetlands with the Quaternary geological landforms. It visually and scientifically narrates the underwater ecosystem, the formation and evolution of ancient geological landforms. In this exhibition area, visitors can learn about the formation process of the ancient Songliao Lake through a mechanical sandbox; explore the fantastical underwater world of the ancient lake by venturing beneath its surface; walk along a reconstructed Quaternary stratum wall to uncover the secrets held within the core samples; touch illustrated sliding TVs to review the 2.58-million-year timeline of the Quaternary period; compare the ancient lake with modern wetlands to grasp the balance between taking from and giving back to nature; and reflect on how to cherish the land beneath our feet and create a harmonious ecological environment as they witness the extinction of once-thriving animals that once lived where we now stand.

The “Mammals of the Northeast Quaternary” exhibition showcases a rich and precious selection of paleontological fossils. With highly impactful yet delicate display methods, it highlights the classification and narration of Quaternary mammals, evolutionary comparisons, international and domestic research discoveries on the Quaternary, the Daqing Museum’s collection and preservation of Quaternary fossils, the relationship between the Quaternary and humans, interactive mounted specimen displays, and more. Multimedia presentations vividly recreate the ecological changes of plants, animals, and humans in the ancient Quaternary, creating a uniquely branded paleontological exhibition that reveals the life and evolution of the animal group.

The “Ancient Human Civilization in the Daqing Region” exhibition highlights the distinctive and significant aspects of the ancient historical development of the Daqing area. Through four thematic sections—ancient humans of Daqing, the splendid Bronze Age culture, ethnic integration during the Liao, Jin, and Yuan periods, and the station culture—it focuses on showcasing the diversity, uniqueness, and importance of the culture of ancient ancestors.

Daqing Museum has now developed into a center for the collection, exhibition, and research of Quaternary mammal fossils in China. It provides a rich fossil foundation and an important scientific research base for future domestic and international studies on the Northeast Quaternary, and establishes a broad platform for international exhibition and exchange.

Further Reading:

· National First-Class Museums of China