China Red Sandalwood Museum

China Red Sandalwood Museum

The China Red Sandalwood Museum is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction.

Heading east along Chang’an Avenue, on the north side of the Gaobeidian exit of the Jing-Tong Expressway, you’ll find a large complex of Ming and Qing-style architecture — this is the China Red Sandalwood Museum. It was built with an investment of over 200 million RMB by Ms. Chen Lihua, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Chairwoman of Hong Kong Fu Wah International Group, Honorary Doctor of Humanities and Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees at the Savannah College of Art and Design in the United States. It is a key project presented by Beijing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The China Red Sandalwood Museum is China’s first large-scale private (non-governmental) museum dedicated to the collection, research, exhibition, and appreciation of red sandalwood art and traditional classical Chinese furniture. It fills a gap in China’s museum landscape.

The China Red Sandalwood Museum itself can be considered a remarkably exquisite and magnificent work of art. Covering an area of 25,000 square meters, the museum features a grand yet exquisitely detailed design, blending classic charm with modern elements. The main gate alone used over 400 cubic meters of wood, all in solid timber construction. The four pillars supporting the gate are 8 meters high and 0.6 meters in diameter — both their scale and material are rare among Beijing’s imitation ancient buildings. Its five-story main structure employs the traditional “mortise-and-tenon without gaps” craftsmanship, precise to the millimeter. The over 1,000-square-meter front plaza uses a royal-exclusive “sea-dyed slab” flooring technique — large blue bricks laid and then soaked in tung oil. Chen Lihua hired woodworking, tilework, and painting experts who had worked at the Palace Museum since the early days of the People’s Republic of China to oversee the entire project. These experts have long been regarded as “living national treasures.”

The China Red Sandalwood Museum has an exhibition area of 9,569 square meters. It includes a central hall, exhibition halls, conference rooms, VIP rooms, multi-function rooms, and temporary exhibition spaces. Here you can admire: a display of Ming and Qing furniture collected by Museum Director Chen Lihua over decades; a showcase of traditional furniture masterpieces meticulously guided by Director Chen over the past 30 years; displays of Buddhist cultural artworks; exhibits on traditional furniture materials, forms, and structures; demonstrations of carving craftsmanship; as well as miniature landscapes of ancient Chinese architecture: the corner towers of the Forbidden City, the Qianqiu Pavilion and Wanchun Pavilion in the Imperial Garden of the Forbidden City, all exuding imperial grandeur; the Dragon Spring Temple memorial archway in Mount Wutai, Shanxi, featuring 320 dragons in diverse poses, with exquisite round carving, relief carving, and openwork carving rarely seen in the world; classic old Beijing siheyuan courtyards, the soaring Shanxi Feiyun Tower, large-scale models of ancient Beijing city gates... These artistic treasures that convey the essence of Eastern aesthetics are all crafted from precious red sandalwood.

Over the years, the China Red Sandalwood Museum has adhered to the business philosophy of “inheritance, development, and innovation,” quietly cultivating and promoting the art of traditional Chinese furniture, helping it flourish. Thanks to the foresight of Museum Director Chen Lihua, the once nearly lost craft of red sandalwood carving has been rescued, preserved, and innovated. In September 2011, the “Red Sandalwood Carving Technique” declared by the China Red Sandalwood Museum was included in the third batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage by the State Council. In 2012, it was designated as a Beijing Municipal Intangible Cultural Heritage Productive Protection Demonstration Base by the Beijing Municipal Government.

As an important cultural landmark in Beijing, the China Red Sandalwood Museum was rated as a national AAAA-level tourist attraction by the National Tourism Administration at the end of 2003. It has hosted visitors and dignitaries from around the world, including former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, former Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Năstase and his wife, Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, and Speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament Chamal Rajapaksa, all of whom visited the museum and left complimentary inscriptions, offering high praise and admiration.

To better promote traditional Chinese red sandalwood culture overseas, the China Red Sandalwood Museum has held touring exhibitions themed “The Mystique of Red Sandalwood” in countries and regions such as the United States, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Guangzhou, introducing China and showcasing the culture of traditional classical Chinese furniture to the world, receiving acclaim and recognition from local communities. At the same time, the museum has also built a bridge for East-West cultural exchange in other forms. World-class museums including the Palace Museum in Beijing, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden in Germany, the Smithsonian Institution in the United States, Château de Chambord in France, and the Kyushu National Museum in Japan all house large red sandalwood artworks from the China Red Sandalwood Museum. Zheng Xinmiao, then Vice Minister of the Ministry of Culture of China and Director of the Palace Museum, praised this initiative as making a significant contribution to bringing traditional Chinese culture to the world.

In the future, the China Red Sandalwood Museum will continue to take the protection of historical heritage and the promotion of traditional Chinese culture as its mission. It will comprehensively and at a high level showcase the charm of red sandalwood art and revive the glory of traditional Chinese furniture.

Address: No. 23 Jianguo Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing (500 meters east of Sihui East Station on Metro Line 1)

Type: Museum

Rating: AAAA

Recommended visiting time: 2 hours

Phone: 010-85752818

Official website: http://www.redsandalwood.com/

Opening hours:

Tuesday–Sunday 9:00–17:00 (Closed on Mondays, ticket sales stop at 16:30).

Tips: The site is closed every Monday, and from New Year’s Eve to the third day of the Lunar New Year.

Admission:

50 RMB

Information source: Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development