Yulin Museum

Yulin Museum

Yulin Museum is located on the south side of Yudong Avenue in Yulin City (opposite the new municipal government), and is the only municipal-level comprehensive museum in Yulin. With a total investment of 112.71 million yuan, it covers a total floor area of 13,981 square meters.

The predecessor of Yulin Museum was the Yulin County Cultural Relics Management Office, established in 1978, and it was renamed to its current name in 1989. As the only municipal-level comprehensive museum in Yulin, Yulin Museum shoulders the important responsibility of protecting the city’s historical and cultural heritage, as well as displaying and passing on Yulin’s local traditional culture. It serves as a sacred hall for national education, science popularization, and the cultivation of historical, cultural, and artistic appreciation. It is also an important window showcasing the historical development and unique cultural heritage of Yulin and its various cities (counties, districts), as well as the southeastern Guangxi region, making it a cultural emblem of Yulin.

Currently, Yulin Museum houses a collection of over 3,000 cultural relics, spanning categories such as stoneware, bronzeware, ironware, silverware, ceramics, bricks and tiles, calligraphy and paintings, textiles and embroideries, bamboo and wood carvings, jade artifacts, stone carvings, rubbings, currency, and more. Among its most representative collections are the world’s largest Lingshan-type bronze drum and China’s only double-headed sheep staff finial.

Yulin Museum is responsible for the collection, preservation, research, and exhibition of cultural relics and specimens within the city’s jurisdiction across five counties (cities) and two districts, as well as the protection and management of cultural heritage sites and relic points. It provides services to the city’s 5.4 million residents. The museum currently holds over 15,000 officially cataloged cultural relics, along with several thousand items and specimens awaiting authentication and accession, hundreds of pounds of ancient coins, and more than 600 classified as precious relics (including 13 first-grade, 85 second-grade). These relics span categories such as ceramics, calligraphy and paintings, bronzeware, wood carvings, jade artifacts, coins, fossils, bricks and tiles, embroidery, rubbings, steles, vouchers, gold and silverware, and ironware, dating from the Neolithic Age to the Republican era — covering a span of over 5,000 years. Representative relics include: a Han Dynasty bronze sheep lamp (exhibited multiple times in Beijing, Nanning, and abroad), the world’s largest Lingshan-type bronze drum “king,” China’s only double-headed sheep staff finial, the bronze seal of the Pingdong General from the Southern Ming Yongli 6th Year, the Northern Song Yuanyou 7th Year lotus-patterned printing bowl mold, soy-glazed kui-mouth folded-rim bowls, dozens of Beiliu-type bronze drums, and a collection of artworks by local notable figures. The museum manages 89 cultural heritage conservation units, including one National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit and 15 Autonomous Region-level Key Cultural Relics Protection Units. There are 437 registered and reported relic sites, along with over 200 additional sites of preliminary historical, scientific, or artistic value that have not yet been officially registered. Over the years, Yulin Museum has made unremitting efforts and achieved notable accomplishments in showcasing local history and culture, promoting national spirit, providing patriotic and revolutionary tradition education to youth, and serving the tourism economy.

Further Reading:

· National Second-Class Museum of China