Chengde County Museum

Chengde County Museum

Established in the early 1980s, Chengde County Museum has a history of over 20 years. The current museum is located in the Cultural Complex Building in the central area of Xiabancheng Town. It features two exhibition halls, a scientifically managed cultural relics storage facility, and a comprehensive security system. The museum staff includes one cultural relics researcher, one associate researcher, three curators, and four full-time guides. The museum undertakes comprehensive cultural heritage work within the county, including protection, discovery, research, promotion, and display.

From its inception as a modest establishment to its current scale, Chengde County Museum now houses a collection of 10,000 items. These include Jurassic dinosaur footprint fossils dating back over 100 million years, Paleolithic and Neolithic artifacts, and animal fossils from the Pleistocene epoch around 100,000 years ago. To maximize the educational and promotional value of these collections, the museum has organized dozens of exhibitions since its opening. In recent years, with strong support from provincial and municipal cultural authorities, as well as efforts by the county government and relevant departments, the museum has hosted exhibitions such as the "Chengde County General History Exhibition," "Chengde County Ancient Bronze Mirrors Exhibition," and "Chengde County Dinosaur Footprint Fossils Exhibition." This year, the museum will launch two new thematic exhibitions — "Chengde County Neolithic Stone Tools Exhibition" and "Chengde County Neolithic Pottery Exhibition" — both designed to be both informative and engaging.

Over the years, Chengde County Museum has conducted extensive surveys of cultural heritage sites within the county, identifying over 600 immovable cultural heritage sites of scientific significance. Among these, six have been designated as provincial-level key cultural relics protection units, and 23 as county-level key cultural relics protection units, ensuring their protection and further study. The museum has also engaged in in-depth research, publishing over 30 research articles in national, provincial, and municipal professional journals, as well as producing specialized books such as "Chaoyang Cave," "Tangquan Imperial Palace," and "Ancient Bronze Mirrors of Chengde County."

The museum currently houses a collection of over 10,000 cultural relics and specimens, including 45 ancient bronze mirrors. Most of these mirrors were collected between the 1970s and 1990s, sourced from local excavations, private collections, and salvage from scrap yards. The majority date back to the Liao, Jin, and Ming dynasties.

Although the bronze mirrors in Chengde County Museum’s collection are relatively late-period artifacts, they feature diverse designs and distinct era-specific characteristics. Notably, mirrors adorned with musical instruments, dance and music patterns, and herding scenes not only provide insights into the musical instruments, dance, and pastoral life of the Yuan Dynasty but also serve as valuable evidence for the study of Yuan-era music, dance, animal husbandry, and production.

Further Reading:

· National Third-Class Museum of China