Zhongxiang City Museum

Zhongxiang City Museum

The predecessor of Zhongxiang City Museum was an exhibition room for cultural relics established in the early 1950s within the Cultural Center of Zhongxiang County, located at the Shanxi-Shaanxi Guild Hall in the old county town. In 1959, it moved to Wujun Academy, and in 1961, it relocated again to the county auditorium. In 1977, with the approval of the Zhongxiang County People’s Government, the Zhongxiang County Library-Museum was established, operating jointly with the Zhongxiang County Library. In February 1979, with the approval of the Zhongxiang County Revolutionary Committee, the Zhongxiang County Museum was officially founded. In March 1980, the Zhongxiang County Museum was formally separated from the library, and its new site was moved to the Yuanyou Palace, a cluster of ancient Ming and Qing buildings. Exhibitions such as "The Historical Relics of Zhongxiang — A National Historic and Cultural City," "Exhibition of a Qing Dynasty Female Mummy," "Exhibition of Calligraphy and Paintings Through the Dynasties," and "Exhibition of Revolutionary Cultural Relics" were opened to the public on a permanent basis.

Development History

The predecessor of Zhongxiang City Museum was an exhibition room for cultural relics established in the early 1950s within the Cultural Center of Zhongxiang County, located at the Shanxi-Shaanxi Guild Hall in the old county town.

In 1959, it moved to Wujun Academy, and in 1961, it relocated again to the county auditorium.

In 1977, with the approval of the Zhongxiang County People’s Government, the Zhongxiang County Library-Museum was established, operating jointly with the Zhongxiang County Library.

In February 1979, with the approval of the Zhongxiang County Revolutionary Committee, the Zhongxiang County Museum was officially founded.

In March 1980, the Zhongxiang County Museum was formally separated from the library, and its new site was moved to the Yuanyou Palace, a cluster of ancient Ming and Qing buildings.

Architectural Layout

The newly built Zhongxiang Museum has a total investment of 60 million yuan, covering an area of 80,040 square meters, including a main building with a construction area of 10,000 square meters and an exhibition area of over 3,300 square meters. Its design concept is themed around Ming culture, featuring a garden-style and multifunctional layout.

The entire structure resembles a seal stamp in a traditional Chinese landscape painting. The floor plan adopts the framework of a Chinese character seal, forming a “Ming” structure — the main building shaped like the character “日” (sun), and the auxiliary building like the character “月” (moon). The whole building is immersed in a landscape pool, forming the museum’s outer garden. The outdoor corridor and open space between the main and auxiliary buildings form the inner garden, creating a spatial image of a garden within a garden. The sides of the building feature scenic windows, with corridors, terraces, and window frames mainly in elegant gray and white tones — white on the outside and gray on the inside. The entrances and exits are fitted with bronze doors engraved with the Chinese character for “dragon.”

The entire facility is divided into five functional zones: exhibition area, collection storage area, technical protection area, public service area, and administrative office area, making it one of the iconic buildings in Zhongxiang. The museum houses five series of permanent exhibitions, including the Ming Emperors Hall, Chu Culture Hall, Ceramics and Calligraphy & Painting Treasures Hall, Longevity Culture Hall, and Li Ji Memorial Hall, as well as temporary exhibition halls and multimedia halls.

Among the exhibition halls, the most distinctive is the Li Ji Memorial Hall. Li Ji, a native of Zhongxiang, was China’s first overseas-trained Ph.D. in anthropology and a founding figure in the field of modern archaeology in China, hailed as the “Father of Chinese Archaeology.” He presided over excavations at the Yinxu ruins in Anyang, Henan, 14 times, collecting a large amount of oracle bone data, transforming the history of the Shang Dynasty from legend into verified fact and pushing back China’s recorded history to 3,000 years ago.

Zhongxiang is a national historic and cultural city with abundant cultural relics. The city has 537 cultural heritage sites. Among them are the Ming Xiaoling Tomb, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, three national key cultural relics protection units, and 20 provincial-level cultural relics protection units. The provincial museum's treasure — the blue-and-white Yuan Dynasty “Four Loves” plum vase — was unearthed from the tomb of Prince Jing of Ying in Zhongxiang during the Ming Dynasty.

Address: No. 48, Yuanyou Road, Zhongxiang City, Jingmen, Hubei Province

Opening Hours:

Off-season: 8:30–11:30, 14:30–17:30; Peak season: 8:00–11:30, 14:00–17:30; Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays

Transportation

Take Bus No. 1 or No. 2 to the Swimming Pool or Lishè Bridge

Further Reading:

· National Third-Class Museum of China