Nanping Museum

Nanping Museum

Nanping Museum is now a regional-level national comprehensive museum. Its establishment was initiated in 1984, and it officially opened to the public in October 1986. In 1994, when Nanping was restructured from a prefecture into a prefecture-level city and the former Nanping City became Yanping District, Nanping Museum was simultaneously upgraded to a prefecture-level museum. The original site was located at No. 4 Xinhua Road, Nanping, with a building area of 600 square meters.

The new building of Nanping Museum is located at No. 266 Makeng Road, Nanping, covering a land area of 4,171 square meters and a building area of 6,368 square meters. Construction began in 2005, and the new museum opened to the public free of charge on November 28, 2011. Zoning and functions: The new museum has seven floors in total — the basement level serves as a temporary comprehensive exhibition hall with an exhibition area of approximately 1,200 square meters; the first floor is a premium cultural relics temporary exhibition hall, with an exhibition area of 550 square meters; floors two to four house the permanent exhibition halls, totaling 2,200 square meters of exhibition space, used for the permanent exhibition “Five Thousand Years of Northern Fujian”; the fifth floor is allocated for the cultural relics storage and operational offices; the sixth floor houses the academic lecture hall. Nanping Museum currently holds a collection of 6,326 items/sets, including 2,105 items/sets of precious cultural relics (2 items/sets of first-grade relics, 45 items/sets of second-grade relics, and 2,058 items/sets of third-grade relics), 3,305 items/sets of general relics, and 916 items/sets of other collections. The collection includes fine ceramics from various dynasties, ancient coins, jade artifacts, calligraphy and paintings, ironware, bronzeware, the Four Treasures of the Study (writing brushes, ink sticks, inkstones, and paper), wooden carvings, and more. Among them, the former museum treasure, the “Zheng He Bronze Bell,” has been relocated to and is now exhibited at the National Museum of China.

Honors Received

In recent years, Nanping Museum has been awarded several honorary titles, including “Fujian Provincial Second-Class Museum,” “Fujian Provincial National Defense Education Base,” “Fujian Provincial Patriotic Education Base,” “Fujian Provincial Advanced Unit for National Defense Education for All Citizens,” “Nanping Municipal Patriotic Education Base,” “Nanping Municipal Spiritual Civilization Unit,” “Nanping Municipal High-Quality Service Demonstration Window for Party Members,” “Xiamen University Cultural Relics and Museology Internship Base in Northern Fujian,” and “Yanping District Youth Moral Education Base.”

Funding Sources and Usage

The current funding of Nanping Museum mainly comes from the national special fund for free opening, provincial special subsidy funds, and operational special funds provided by the municipal government. These financial allocations basically ensure the museum’s free operation and opening.

The funds allocated by higher authorities are mainly used for the following purposes: museum building maintenance, free opening operations, hosting temporary exhibitions, cultural relics acquisition and protection, field archaeology, and professional personnel training.

Major Events in the Museum’s Development

On November 28, 2011, the new building of Nanping Museum officially opened to the public. Attendees at the opening ceremony included Zheng Guozhen, former Director of the Fujian Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau; Wu Zhiyue, Director of the Fujian Museum; Lan Siwen, Director of the Nanping Municipal People's Congress (former Standing Committee Member and Propaganda Minister of the Municipal Party Committee); Liu Yasheng, Vice Mayor of the Nanping Municipal People's Government; leaders from various counties (cities, districts) including heads of culture and sports bureaus and museum directors.

In June 2012, Nanping Museum was recognized as a “Nanping Municipal Patriotic Education Base” by the Nanping Municipal Party Committee Propaganda Department.

In August 2012, it was rated as a “Fujian Provincial Second-Class Museum” by the Fujian Provincial Department of Culture and the Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau.

In August 2012, it was recognized as a “Fujian Provincial National Defense Education Base” by the Fujian Provincial Government.

In June 2013, Nanping Museum was awarded the title of “Third Batch of High-Quality Service Demonstration Windows for Party Members” by the Nanping Municipal Directly-Subordinate Organs Work Committee.

In May 2014, Nanping Museum cooperated with the History Department of Xiamen University to establish the “Xiamen University Cultural Relics and Museology Internship Base in Northern Fujian.”

In November 2014, it was recognized as a “Fujian Provincial Advanced Unit for National Defense Education for All Citizens” by the Fujian Provincial National Defense Education Joint Conference.

In September 2014, with the support of the Nanping Municipal Government, the first-floor premium exchange exhibition hall was renovated.

In October 2014, Nanping Museum collaborated with the Qinghai Liawan Colored Pottery Museum to host its first out-of-province premium exhibition, “Riversource Prehistoric Human Civilization—Qinghai Liawan Colored Pottery Exhibition.”

In December 2014, Comrade Wang Shiliang, Director of Nanping Museum, passed the evaluation for the senior research title of cultural relics and museums, becoming the first full senior researcher in the museum’s history.

In May 2015, the “Yanping District Youth Moral Education Base” was established at Nanping Museum.

In August 2015, it was awarded the title of “Nanping Municipal Twelfth (2012–2014) Civilized Unit” by the Nanping Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government.

In May 2016, it was recognized as a “Fujian Provincial Patriotic Education Base” by the Fujian Provincial Party Committee Propaganda Department.

In May 2017, Nanping Museum was rated as an outstanding unit in performance management for the year 2016.

Address: No. 266 Makeng Road, Nanping, Fujian Province

Transportation: Accessible via Bus Route 7

Opening Hours: 9:00–17:00

Open Tuesday to Sunday; closed on Mondays.

Postal Code: 353000

Phone: 0599-8612820

Further reading:

· China's National Second-Class Museum