Beian City Museum

Beian City Museum

The Beian Museum is a comprehensive local museum. Its building was originally the site of the former Heilongjiang Daily News, a municipal-level cultural relic protection unit in Heihe, and is currently applying for provincial-level cultural relic protection status in Heilongjiang. In 2012, the Beian Museum was named one of the top ten outstanding museums in Heilongjiang Province. It is the first museum in Beian, with full fire safety and surveillance coverage, including no blind spots inside or outside the building. The security system is connected to the public security network and equipped with alarm devices, ensuring comprehensive protective measures. The Beian Museum consists of a main exhibition hall displaying the local history of Beian, along with five thematic exhibition areas: Natural Beian, Cultural Beian, Gun City Beian, the Newspaper Hall, and the Ice and Snow Painting Hall. The local history exhibition includes four sections: Ancient History of Beian, Modern Beian, Establishment of the People’s Government, and Beian During Reform and Opening Up. The core exhibits use a wealth of detailed cultural relics, photographs, dioramas, sculptures, oil paintings, as well as modern technological elements such as lighting and audiovisual displays, to recreate the historical overview of the Beian region during the Pre-Qin, Jin-Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. It also highlights the arduous struggle of the people of Beian during the War of Resistance against Japan, faithfully documenting major historical events such as the establishment of the local government, land reform, the Liberation War, and the Korean War, as well as the development and construction history of various sectors including industry, agriculture, science, education, and more in Beian. The four sections can be emphasized or de-emphasized depending on the required exhibition space for artifacts and unique display designs.

Thematic Exhibitions

1. Heilongjiang Daily Exhibition Hall In 1945, our Party took over the puppet Manchukuo's Beian "Kangde News" newspaper office and renamed it Heilongjiang Publishing House. Hou Yefeng served as the director at the time, with Zhang Zigang and Zhang Xiangling as deputy directors. On December 1, 1945, the inaugural issue of the Heilongjiang Daily, titled "Current Affairs News," was officially published, marking a new chapter in the province’s journalism history. In May 1949, Heilongjiang and Nenjiang provinces were merged, and the publishing house subsequently moved to Qiqihar. The former site of the Heilongjiang Daily Publishing House is one of the most important components of the province’s Liberation War history and journalism heritage. It was here that the province’s first party newspaper was born, playing a significant role in propaganda and public opinion during the Liberation War.

2. Firearms Exhibition Hall The predecessor of Factory 626 was the firearms workshop of the Northeast Arsenal, established by Zhang Zuolin in 1921. It is an old defense industry enterprise that has undergone over 80 years of transformation. The products of Qinghua Factory are diverse, covering military, civilian, and sporting firearms. During the Korean War, most of China’s standard-issue small arms were produced here. The factory has its own product exhibition room, preserving over 200 types of firearms, accessories, and civilian tools produced since its establishment. Notable firearms include the Type 50 submachine gun, Type 54 7.62mm pistol, Type 56 submachine gun, Type 67 silenced pistol, and the Dongfeng series of sporting pistols. In June 2005, Factory 626 was incorporated into Beian, and discussions are currently underway regarding the transfer of its firearms exhibits to the Beian Museum after its completion.

3. Natural Resources Exhibition of Beian This exhibition displays over 600 pieces (sets) of forest plant and cultivated plant specimens from the Beian region, along with supplementary displays of insect specimens, paleontological fossil specimens, and rock and mineral specimens. Beian features thick layers of fertile black soil, making it an important national commodity grain base, particularly renowned for its soybeans, rice, and potatoes. The region boasts extremely rich wildlife resources. It produces abundant mountain products such as fiddlehead ferns, bracken, wood ear fungus, monkey head mushrooms, and various mushrooms; over a hundred kinds of precious medicinal herbs such as schisandra berries, eleutherococcus, and astragalus; and ample timber reserves, mainly consisting of larch, Mongolian oak, birch, and black birch. Including both crops and introduced plants, there are now 101 families and over 750 species of higher plants identified in the Beian region.

4. Cultural Beian Exhibition This exhibition showcases cultural relics, ethnic items, and folk craft objects that represent the various ethnic groups of the Beian region across different historical periods. Through the use of audiovisual materials, photographs, and textual descriptions, it reflects the local customs, beliefs, lifestyle culture, and traditional crafts of the Beian area. Our city is rich in cultural resources, with intangible cultural heritage widely distributed. Beian’s Liu-style Errenzhuan (a form of Chinese folk duet opera) has been listed in the first group of Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Catalogs of Heilongjiang Province. In addition, Beian paper-cutting and calligraphy have gained international recognition; folk embroidery, folk ballads, and folk textile arts are also shining examples of intangible culture. A smaller thematic exhibition themed “Hometown of Red Lanterns” can be set up under this exhibition, displaying physical materials related to the opera Red Lanterns, such as reports, stills, posters, records, scripts, and comic books, to promote Beian’s humanistic resources.

5. Chen Yufei Ice and Snow Painting Exhibition Hall This exhibition primarily showcases the works of Chen Yufei, a Beian-based ice and snow painter. The hall covers an area of 126 square meters. His paintings excel in depicting birch forests in snowy landscapes. He has an intimate understanding of birch trees, and his representations of them, using ice and snow painting techniques, incorporate free interpretations of form and color. These works transcend nature and everyday life, embodying an otherworldly beauty. His brushwork is vivid and lively, conveying warmth amid the cold and exuding vitality. He artistically captures the three-dimensional light effects of ice, creating a crystal-clear, breathtakingly beautiful effect resembling radiant pearls. The silver-white world, with snowflakes flying dynamically, showcases the majestic beauty of white mountains and black waters—vast, serene, and profoundly scenic, offering viewers a sudden enlightenment into the charm of ice and snow.