Chenzhou Museum

Chenzhou Museum

Chenzhou Museum is situated on the fourth and fifth floors of the City Cultural Center at No. 5 Museum Road, Beihu District, Chenzhou City. It was officially opened to the public free of charge on August 2, 2009. The museum covers a construction area of 4,800 square meters, with an exhibition area of 1,200 square meters, and houses nearly 10,000 cultural relics, including more than 1,300 classified as precious. The precious collections include white pottery artifacts dating back 7,000 years, bronzeware, bronze mirrors, and ceramics from the Shang-Zhou period to the Ming and Qing dynasties, the ancient book *Huguang Township Examination Records* from the Ming Dynasty, wooden slips from the Three Kingdoms Wu and Western Jin periods unearthed in 2003–2004 from ancient wells at Suzhan Bridge in Chenzhou, as well as lacquered leather belts and silk fabrics from the late Warring States period excavated in 2013 at Guimen Ridge in Chenzhou. In 2018, it was rated as a National Second-Class Museum. It currently serves as a municipal-level base for patriotic education, science and technology popularization, and extracurricular educational activities for youth.

The museum features three permanent and thematic exhibitions: *Coming Down the Ancient Road – Exhibition of Chenzhou’s Historical Relics*, *Treasures from Ancient Wells – Exhibition of Bamboo Slips Unearthed in Chenzhou*, and *The Unbreakable Backbone – Exhibition on Chenzhou’s Fight Against the 2008 Catastrophic Ice-Snow Disaster*. It also hosts several temporary exhibitions each year, attracting over 200,000 visitors annually.

Approved for establishment by the Regional Compiling Office in 1984, the museum initially shared staffing and operations with the Municipal Cultural Relics Office under a dual name and single team, with a total of 26 approved positions. In 2017, the Municipal Compiling Office approved the separation of the Cultural Relics Office and the Museum, assigning 11 positions to the museum. In 2019, the office approved an increase to 30 positions for the museum (including the transfer of 16 staff members from the People's Cinema). Currently, the museum has 35 staff members, including 14 full-time in-service employees (two of whom are military placement personnel) and 24 temporary staff for security, guiding, cleaning, etc. (including 13 outsourced security personnel).

Opening Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00–17:00; closed on Mondays for maintenance. For visit inquiries and reservations, please call: 0735-2277953.

Further Reading:

· China National Second-Class Museum