China Agricultural Museum

China Agricultural Museum

The China Agricultural Museum serves as a base for science education and patriotic education.

As a national-level specialized museum, the China Agricultural Museum preserves a diverse collection of nearly 50,000 agricultural artifacts, specimens, ancient books, and traditional farming tools, including over 20,000 cultural relics and more than 30,000 precious ancient books. The museum has developed distinctive and well-established series of artifacts, including stone tools mainly from the Neolithic Age, pottery such as pottery funerary objects and painted pottery, bronze ware represented by bronze production tools, ironware represented by iron production tools, as well as traditional farming tools, inkstones, ancient silk fabrics, grain coupons, and agricultural propaganda posters. Some categories rank among the best in the country.

Stone artifacts: The museum houses around 200 stone tools from the Neolithic period, such as stone axes, adzes, chisels, shovels, grinding plates, and rollers. Pottery items include several major types: painted pottery, plain pottery, black pottery, glazed pottery, polychrome glazed pottery, and Tang tri-color pottery. Aside from painted pottery, other types are mostly funerary objects. There are approximately 100 pieces of bronze ware, including weapons, daily utensils, and ritual vessels. Notable items such as the Shang Dynasty bronze yan and jue, Western Zhou Dynasty bronze ding, gui, and li, and Warring States Period bronze bianzhong, fu, mou, and yi hold significant value and are considered rare treasures. There are over 300 iron farming tools, mainly unearthed from the Liao and Jin Dynasties in northern China. Traditional farming tools number over 5,000, covering all 30 provinces and regions except Taiwan, making it the most comprehensive collection of its kind in China. The museum also holds over 2,000 agricultural propaganda posters, the largest known collection, featuring award-winning and representative works by renowned artists such as Jin Meisheng, Han Meilin, Ge Xianglan, and Liu Wenxi. The museum boasts the largest collection of ancient agricultural books in China and is one of the top three institutions for such collections, with nearly 70,000 volumes in its archives, including about 30,000 rare and special editions. The natural specimens in the collection fall into three main categories: rare animal specimens, precious plant specimens, and national soil samples, totaling over 3,000 valuable items. The museum has gathered over 226 soil samples representing more than 120 types, making it the “epitome” of China’s soil specimen collections—the richest and most comprehensive soil sample repository in the country’s history—and forming a highly valuable series for agricultural research.

Basic Exhibitions

Exhibition on Chinese Agricultural Civilization

The Exhibition on Chinese Agricultural Civilization is located in Hall 2 and Hall 4, covering an area of approximately 4,850 square meters with over 900 linear meters of display space and more than 1,000 sets of cultural relics. The exhibition showcases over ten thousand years of Chinese agricultural history, highlighting the “Four Great Inventions” of ancient agriculture, the characteristics and development of modern agriculture, and advancements in contemporary agricultural science and technology. It consists of an introductory hall and eight thematic sections: the Evolution of Agricultural Civilization, the Invention and Heritage of Plows, Hoes, Sickles, and Mills, Hydraulic Engineering and Water Utilization, the Origin and Development of Animal Husbandry, the Origin and Spread of Textile Technology, the Introduction of Western Learning and Experimental Agronomy, and Agriculture in the Progressing Republic.

Exhibition on Traditional Chinese Farming Tools

The Exhibition on Traditional Chinese Farming Tools is one of the most distinctive displays focusing on agricultural culture. Traditional farming tools are products of China’s agricultural development and an important part of its material culture. These tools have evolved significantly—from materials (from wood and stone to bronze, then iron), functions (from digging and threshing to plowing, sowing, weeding, irrigating, harvesting, processing, and storing), to power sources (from human to animal and water power, and from simple to complex mechanisms). The exhibits were carefully selected from over 4,000 collected items across China after more than 20 years of field research, collection, organization, and study by museum researchers. To clearly present the achievements of traditional Chinese farming tools, the exhibition is organized into nine sections based on agricultural processes: land preparation, sowing, field management, irrigation, harvesting, transportation, threshing, processing, and weighing. The display area covers 400 square meters, with a main display line of 98 linear meters and over 150 sets of cultural relics.

Youth Science Exhibition

The Youth Agricultural Science Museum is an exhibition tailored for young visitors and is arguably the most fun and engaging section of the China Agricultural Museum. Despite its modest size of 650 square meters, it integrates advanced display technologies such as sound, light, and electricity, offering an extraordinary visitor experience. The content is divided into three parts: Agriculture and Production, Agriculture and Life, and Agriculture and Environment. The interior is predominantly green, divided into various uniquely styled spaces that, along with vivid patterns and colorful decorations, transport visitors to a magical world.

Upon entering the exhibition hall, the most eye-catching feature is a large square cabinet in the center, with a black lower half and a transparent upper section. This impressive device is called a 360-degree holographic imaging system, also known as a hologram. Standing nearby, you’ll be amazed to see colorful, glowing 3D figures appearing in the transparent upper space. They can talk, express emotions, and move just like humans—only much smaller. This high-tech 360-degree holographic imaging uses multiple optical mirrors to create an inverted pyramid-shaped translucent space where dynamic 3D images are suspended at the center, visible from any angle around the display. The system features a curious boy and an omniscient doctor in virtual form. By listening to their conversation, you can learn more about and develop a greater interest in high-tech agricultural applications such as space breeding, cloning technology, and satellite remote sensing. The lifelike, almost indistinguishable-from-reality images suspended mid-air yet intangible truly showcase the unique charm of holographic imaging—you have to experience it to believe it.

China Soil Exhibition Hall

Land is the foundation of human survival and the most basic agricultural resource. China, with its vast territory, has one of the most diverse soil types in the world. The China Soil Exhibition Hall at the China Agricultural Museum brings together the country’s major soil resource types, displaying dozens of complete profile samples representing key soil types. It is the only collection in China to cover the most soil types, utilize the most advanced production techniques, and maintain the highest level of preservation, making it a representative and systematic collection of great significance. Covering an area of about 400 square meters, it complements the basic Exhibition on Chinese Agricultural Civilization.

The China Soil Exhibition Hall uses soil samples as its primary medium, supplemented with related crops exhibiting typical traits. Through text, charts, models, paintings, audiovisuals, multimedia technologies, and interactive elements, it introduces soil-related knowledge and illustrates the relationship between soil and agriculture, and between soil and humans. The exhibition enhances public understanding of soil, fosters pride in China’s rich soil resources, raises awareness of critical soil issues, and cultivates consciousness for soil and environmental protection, encouraging attention to humanity’s living environment.

Three-Screen Theater

The “Three-Screen Theater” is one of the highlight projects of the China Agricultural Museum’s renovation. It is a unique cinematic platform found nowhere else in the world and features a core playback engine platform with independent intellectual property rights. By integrating dome, circular, and floor screens through advanced technology and combining them with a multi-screen projection system, the theater delivers crystal-clear visuals that fully immerse the audience. With its unique visual impact and surround sound, it offers an intense sense of immersion and experience, making viewers feel as though they are inside the film, exploring macro worlds, microcosms, ancient times, and future realms that are otherwise unreachable.

The “Three-Screen Theater” seamlessly blends the dome, circular, and floor screens to create a new, fully immersive experience. The dome screen, the ultimate evolution of wide-screen cinema that extends upward, envelops the audience like a giant dome or a half-sphere resting on the ground. Visitors enter a dedicated tunnel to watch films inside the spherical space. Using a fisheye lens with a horizontal viewing angle of 180 degrees and a vertical angle of 128 degrees, the dome screen provides the widest field of vision currently available—making it ideal for depicting spaceflight, astronomy, and deep-sea scenes. It is undoubtedly one of the most expressive and impactful forms of science education today.

Outdoor Exhibition Garden

Stepping into the China Agricultural Museum feels like entering an urban garden. With a green space of 140,000 square meters—over half of the total area—the museum features a harmonious blend of classical architecture, pavilions, corridors, lakes, and tree-lined paths, creating a serene oasis in the bustling city, and is one of China’s rare garden-style museums.

During its early development, the museum’s landscaping was designed around two themes: “Agricultural Museum” and “Botanical Garden.” After decades of careful cultivation, the site is now home to an exceptionally rich variety of plants, earning it the nickname “a three-dimensional agricultural encyclopedia.”

Among them is the ginkgo tree, known for its graceful form and golden foliage in late autumn—green in spring and summer. As one of the world’s oldest tree species and one of China’s Four Long-Lived Ornamental Trees (pine, cypress, scholar tree, and ginkgo), it is listed as a National Class I Protected Wild Plant.

Collection Highlights

As a national-level specialized museum, the China Agricultural Museum preserves a diverse collection of nearly 50,000 agricultural artifacts, specimens, ancient books, and traditional farming tools, including over 20,000 cultural relics and more than 30,000 precious ancient books. The collection includes series and distinctive categories such as stone artifacts mainly from the Neolithic Age, pottery such as pottery funerary objects and painted pottery, bronze ware represented by bronze production tools, ironware represented by iron production tools, traditional farming tools, inkstones, ancient silk fabrics, grain coupons, and agricultural propaganda posters. Some categories rank among the best in the country. In addition to these large and systematic collections, the museum also houses other exceptional cultural relics.

Address: No. 16, North Road of East Third Ring, Chaoyang District, Beijing, National Agricultural Exhibition Center

Type: Museum

Phone: 010-65096063

Official Website: http://www.zgnybwg.com.cn/gb1/index.html

Opening hours:

9:00–16:00 (Closed on Mondays)

Source: Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development

Further reading:

·National First-Class Museum of China