Chaohu City Museum

Chaohu City Museum

Chaohu City Museum serves as a patriotic education base.

Chaohu City Museum is a national third-grade museum, established in 1997. It is located on Fangwanggang Hill at the eastern end of Jiankang Road, bordered by Qishan and Gushan to the east and facing Chaohu Lake to the west. The museum was built upon the restoration and preservation of the original site of the Han Dynasty tombs at Fangwanggang. It is under the administration of the Chaohu Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, News, and Publishing. Since opening to the public in 2000, leveraging its unique advantages, it has been dedicated to historical research, cultural relic preservation, exhibition curation, and social education within the Chaohu region. It serves as an important window for promoting and showcasing the long history and splendid culture of the area.

Covering an area of 86 mu, Chaohu City Museum has a building area of 2,000 square meters. Its collection includes 4,326 cultural relics, among which there are 39 first-grade relics, 35 second-grade relics, and 77 third-grade relics. National treasure-level items include a gilded bronze vermilion bird, a jade wine vessel (zhi), a dragon-shaped jade pendant, and a jade belt hook. The permanent exhibitions are divided into two sections: “Exhibition of Selected Relics Unearthed from Han Tombs in Chaohu” and “Exhibition of the Fangwanggang Han Tomb Site,” both of which are open to the public year-round. In March 2008, the museum began offering free admission to the public. The “Exhibition of Selected Relics Unearthed from Han Tombs in Chaohu” primarily features high-quality artifacts excavated from the Han tombs at Fangwanggang and Beishantou in Chaohu. The exhibits are categorized into bronze ware, jade ware, lacquered woodenware, and others, illustrating the historical significance and major influence of Han culture in the Chaohu region. The “Exhibition of the Fangwanggang Han Tomb Site” presents the grand-scale coffin and outer coffin of the Fangwanggang Han Tomb in their original form and location. It introduces the structural features of the tomb’s coffin and outer coffin, excavation details, and findings. The excavation of this tomb was once nominated for the “1996 Top Ten Archaeological New Discoveries in China – Honorable Mention Award.”

Further Reading:

· China’s National Third-Grade Museums