Longhua Ethnic Museum

Longhua Ethnic Museum

Longhua Ethnic Museum is located in Longhua Town, covering an area of 5,934 square meters. It currently houses three permanent exhibitions: "Historical Relics of Longhua," "Cultural Relics Unearthed from Anzhou, Beianzhou, and Xingzhou," and "Once the Land of Emperors," all of which are open to the public free of charge year-round.

Longhua Ethnic Museum is a landmark comprehensive museum with a traditional two-courtyard layout, covering an area of 5,934 square meters. The exhibition halls, multifunctional hall, cultural relics storage, and office buildings are rationally laid out with complete functionality. The main structure features an antique hip-and-gable roof style with brick-concrete construction, yellow glazed tiles, milky white walls, and rosewood-colored antique windows and doors, creating an elegant, well-proportioned, and distinctly ethnic architectural style.

History

Longhua Museum was established in 1981, though at the time it only occupied an area of roughly two acres and nine-tenths.

In 1988, the Longhua County Museum began an expansion project, which was completed in 1990. After the expansion, the museum’s floor space reached 2,500 square meters, including exhibition halls, cultural relics storage, offices, a multifunctional hall, and a service department.

Since then, the museum has fully utilized its exhibition capabilities. In addition to establishing the three core exhibition halls, it has regularly hosted numerous temporary exhibitions, such as calligraphy shows, photography exhibits, science and technology displays, "Developing Longhua," and "Longhua Resources Exhibition."

In 2003, Longhua County Museum underwent its most significant transformation — it was renamed the "Ethnic Museum."

In 2009, the Longhua County Party Committee and County Government decided that the Ethnic Museum would be relocated and rebuilt, with the new site situated near the Martyrs' Cemetery of Dong Cunrui.

Currently, Longhua Ethnic Museum features four permanent exhibition halls: "Historical Relics of Longhua," "Once the Land of Emperors," "Cultural Relics Unearthed from Anzhou, Beianzhou, and Xingzhou," and "Developing Longhua." To welcome the public with a completely renewed image, the museum has enhanced its landscaping, refined its core exhibitions, enriched its collections, and improved overall display standards.

The first exhibition hall, "Historical Relics of Longhua," primarily displays artifacts from the Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages, such as stone cores, arrowheads, and blade flakes collected from the second and third terraces of the river valleys and basins along both sides of the Luanhe River within Longhua.

Among the museum’s collections, artifacts unearthed from Anzhou, Beianzhou, and Xingzhou are the most abundant. The museum has dedicated its largest exhibition hall (equivalent in size to the combined area of the first and third halls) to presenting the ethnic cultures of these historical periods. This hall houses numerous treasures, such as a bronze statue from the Northern and Southern Dynasties discovered in a crevice on Black Mountain south of Longhua Town. The statue features a round halo engraved with the inscription: "Made by Buddhist disciple Liu Hui on the fifth day of the fifth month in the fifth year of the Tai Chang era, using four jin of copper, crafted by Li Zhai." Experts estimate that this Buddha statue dates back over 1,570 years and is considered a national treasure.

Longhua Ethnic Museum is committed to long-term development, striving for greater achievements in the cultural heritage field. By highlighting distinctive initiatives and developing unique cultural products, the museum has cultivated its own sustainable growth capacity. Utilizing the patterns from silk artifacts unearthed from the Yuan Dynasty pigeon cave storage, the museum has developed a range of products that have become the preferred gifts for external exchanges by the Longhua County Party Committee, County Government, and various county-level departments. These efforts have also injected new vitality into the development of Longhua’s cultural heritage endeavors. With a profound cultural foundation, the region boasts a rich legacy of heritage. Tracing this historical lineage — from the slash-and-burn agriculture of the Stone Age to the ceremonial bronze bells and tripods of the Shang, Zhou, Qin, and Han dynasties; from the founding of Anzhou in the Northern Wei to the influx of Khitan culture; from the flourishing handicraft industry during the Jin and Yuan periods to the endless Manchu and Mongolian charm along the imperial hunting route of Emperor Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty — every event and artifact records the historical epochs of this northern frontier land.

The museum houses a collection of over 50,000 items, including more than 500 national-level precious cultural relics. These include exquisitely crafted bronze ornaments from the Upper Xiajiadian Culture, various bronze swords with animal-head designs from the Donghu and Shanrong peoples, an inscribed rust-resistant bronze spear from the Warring States period, a gilt bronze statue from the Northern Wei "Fifth Year of Tai Chang," a Tang Dynasty "Khitan Military Governor Seal," various Liao Dynasty tri-colored and glazed ceramics, and standard ware from the Longhua porcelain kilns during the Jin and Yuan periods, such as the "Second Year of Zhizheng White Glazed Black Floral Jar." Notably, textile artifacts such as the Yuan Dynasty "Camel-Colored Ground Interlocking Peony and Lotus-Patterned Brocade Quilt Cover" are national treasures that fill gaps in global collections, now serving as vital physical references for the study of ancient world textiles. These collections document the developmental journey of the diverse ancient ethnic groups of northern China and reflect, from multiple perspectives, the mutual influence, integration, and evolution of agricultural and nomadic cultures throughout history.

Longhua Ethnic Museum has been recognized as an Outstanding Patriotic Education Base at both the national and provincial levels within the cultural heritage system, as well as a Patriotic Education Base in Chengde City. In 2006, it was designated as a National Key Museum by the National Cultural Heritage Administration. In recent years, over 50 articles reporting on the development of Longhua’s cultural heritage efforts have been published in media outlets such as Xinhua Daily News Brief, China Cultural Relics News, Guangming Daily, China Culture Daily, Hebei Daily, Chengde Daily, Cultural Relics World, and Cultural Relics Newsletter. Central Television, Hebei Television, and Chengde Television have also produced multiple special TV programs to showcase the new achievements of Longhua’s cultural heritage initiatives.

Further Reading:

· National Third-Class Museum of China