Tongliang Museum

Tongliang Museum

The Tongliang Museum is a national AAA-level tourist attraction.

Located by the Bachuan River, the Tongliang Museum is the first comprehensive county-level museum established in Chongqing. Approved by the county government in 1998 with an investment of seven million yuan, the museum complex covers an area of seventy thousand square meters and houses four exhibition rooms for cultural relics, as well as facilities such as storage rooms and security monitoring offices. The entire building was designed and constructed based on the principles of being “solemn, elegant, beautiful, and human-centric.” It is a modern, comprehensive, intelligent structure that officially opened to the public in October 2000.

The Tongliang Museum permanently displays four exhibition rooms featuring cultural relics with local characteristics. These include the "Tongliang Culture," a Paleolithic culture over 20,000 years old named by the Chinese Academy of Sciences; the stone statue ceremonial guards from Tongliang Ming Dynasty tombs, commonly known as "little terracotta warriors"; the globally renowned Tongliang Dragon Lanterns; and folk cultural relics full of vibrant daily life.

In October 2010, with approval from the Chongqing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics, the Tongliang Wooden Plaque Museum was established and operates jointly with the Tongliang Museum. A 1,500-square-meter exhibition room was set up in the new library, displaying 100 exquisite wooden plaques, marking a highlight of the county’s cultural development.

Leveraging Tongliang’s rich cultural heritage and the abundance of precious cultural relics left behind, the Tongliang Museum boasts exceptional collections. The total collection includes over ten thousand historical artifacts and natural specimens, among which there are 110 sets of first-grade relics, 13 sets of second-grade relics, and 434 sets of third-grade relics. These collections gather a wealth of cultural treasures from Tongliang’s ancient past to the modern era. The museum's holdings are especially notable for ancient biological fossil specimens, Ming Dynasty tomb stone carvings and pottery figurines, dragon lanterns, and plaques. Currently, the museum offers five permanent exhibitions: the "Tongliang Culture Exhibition," the "Tongliang Ming Tomb Stone Carving Exhibition," the "Tongliang Folk Culture Exhibition," the "Tongliang Dragon Lantern Culture Exhibition," and the "Tongliang Wooden Plaque Exhibition," all reflecting the profound historical and geographical culture of Tongliang.

Since its establishment, the Tongliang Museum has hosted various large-scale exhibitions, including biological science popularization exhibits, fine cultural relics displays, ground cultural relic photo exhibitions, dragon lantern craftsmanship exhibitions, and traveling exhibitions. These have attracted numerous domestic and international visitors. The Tongliang Museum was designated as a Patriotic Education Base for Youth in Tongliang County in 1999, was additionally titled the "Chongqing Tongliang Dragon Museum" in 2000, was rated as a National Third-Class Museum in June 2009, and was recognized as a Science Education Base in Tongliang County in 2012. It serves as an important learning hub for social education and the enhancement of civic literacy in Tongliang County.

Further Reading:

· China's National Second-Class Museum