Jingzhou Museum

Jingzhou Museum

Jingzhou Museum is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction and a patriotic education base.

Jingzhou Museum is a comprehensive regional museum spanning 48,000 square meters. It enjoys widespread fame for its pleasant surroundings, extensive collection of cultural relics, uniquely regional displays, and significant archaeological findings. In 1994, it was selected by experts from the National Cultural Heritage Administration as the “foremost among top municipal museums” in China. In collaboration with various construction projects, the museum has excavated over 120,000 precious cultural relics. These include silk artifacts from the Warring States period; swords of four generations of Yue kings and the spear of King Fuchai of Wu; lacquerware from the Warring States and Qin-Han periods; ancient Chinese manuscripts such as the world’s earliest known mathematical treatise, the "Book on Numbers and Computation," and the legal texts "Two-Year Legal Code" from the early Han Dynasty; as well as the world’s oldest and best-preserved male corpse from the Western Han Dynasty.

Located inside the west gate of Jingzhou, a national historical and cultural city, Jingzhou Museum is a comprehensive regional institution integrating exhibitions, public services, cultural relic preservation, field archaeology, artifact collection, and scientific research. Established in 1958, and through over forty years of development, the museum has received strong support from local government and higher authorities, with nearly 100 million yuan invested. It now covers a site area of 46,700 square meters and a building area of 17,700 square meters. In cooperation with various infrastructure projects, the museum has excavated more than 7,000 ancient tombs and over 50 ancient sites. Among them, the Warring States silk from Jiangling Mashan, the Han bamboo slips from Jiangling Zhangjiashan, and the Paleolithic site at Jigongshan were all major archaeological discoveries nationwide, yielding a large number of valuable relics. It is the largest municipal-level museum in China.

Jingzhou Museum houses a collection of over 130,000 cultural relics. Among these, there are more than 10,000 pieces of lacquerware from the Chu and Qin-Han periods, making it the museum with the largest collection of ancient lacquerware in China. The museum also leads the nation in the number of Chu and Qin-Han bamboo slips. The Warring States silk textiles are famed for their early dating, wide variety, and excellent state of preservation, earning recognition internationally as the world’s “Silk Treasury.” Additionally, the museum preserves a remarkably intact Western Han Dynasty mummy.

To promote historical materialism and patriotic education among the public, Jingzhou Museum has launched seven thematic exhibitions with strong regional cultural features: “Exhibition of Primitive Cultures in the Jianghan Plain,” “Exhibition of Chu and Han Cultures in the Jianghan Plain,” “Exhibition of Heritage Artifacts,” “Exhibition of Bamboo Slips Unearthed in Jingzhou,” “Exhibition of Tomb No. 168 at Phoenix Mountain in Jingzhou,” “Exhibition of Fine Ancient Lacquerware,” and “Exhibition of Chu and Han Textiles and Embroidery.”

Jingzhou Museum currently employs over 100 staff members, including 19 with senior professional titles and 45 with mid-level titles. It has formed a highly qualified and comprehensive team of heritage professionals. The museum has published numerous influential research works, including "Chu Tombs at Yutai Mountain in Jiangling," "Chu Tomb No. 1 at Mashan in Jiangling," "An Introduction to Neolithic Cultures in the Middle Yangtze River Region," "Research on Chu Lacquerware," "Research on Chu Textiles," "Compilation of Chu Bamboo and Silk Scripts," "Xiaojiawuji," "Qin and Han Tombs at Gaotai in Jingzhou," and "Zaolin Hill and Duijintai." It has also published over 300 academic papers. Works such as "Chu Tombs at Yutai Mountain in Jiangling" and "Chu Tomb No. 1 at Mashan in Jiangling" have won the Second Prize of the Xia Nai Archaeological Research Award and the Third Prize of the Hubei Social Science Research Award, respectively. In 1993, Jingzhou Museum was named the top municipal-level museum in China by the National Cultural Heritage Administration. In 1995, it was designated a National Advanced Cultural Unit by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Personnel. In 1999, the “Exhibition of Chu and Han Cultures in the Jianghan Plain” won the National Top Ten Exhibition Excellence Award from the National Cultural Heritage Administration. In 2000, Jingzhou Museum was awarded the title of National Advanced Tourism Unit by the National Tourism Administration. In 2003, the museum’s project “Conservation Research of Chu Dynasty Textiles from Tomb No. 1 at Mashan” won the Second Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress in Hubei Province.

Address: No. 134, Jingzhou Middle Road, Jingzhou District, Jingzhou City

Type: Museum

Rating: AAAA

Recommended Visiting Time: 2–3 hours

Phone: 0716-8494808, 0716-8494187

Official Website: http://www.jzmsm.org/

Opening Hours: Closed on Mondays (except holidays), Tuesday–Sunday: 9:30–16:30, last entry at 16:00.

Ticket Information: Free admission.

Further Reading:

· National First-Class Museum of China