China Sports Museum

China Sports Museum

The China Sports Museum is a patriotic education base.

Destination Introduction

The China Sports Museum is located southeast of the National Olympic Sports Center in the Asian Games Village, Beijing, and was opened to the public in September 1990.

The museum covers a construction area of 7,100 square meters, with an exhibition area of 510 square meters. It houses over 4,700 ancient and modern sports relics and more than 5,000 precious images of sports artifacts. It serves as a multifunctional, comprehensive new social education platform for promoting and researching Chinese sports culture, and an important window into China’s sports. The exhibitions are divided into five sections: Ancient China, Modern China, Sports Achievements of the People’s Republic of China, the Olympic Movement, and Ethnic Sports. Through the exhibits, visitors can gain a comprehensive understanding of the development of China’s long-standing traditional sports history.

The museum also hosts various temporary exhibitions, such as the 11th Asian Games Sports Philatelic Exhibition (featuring 1,374 frames of stamps from 207 collections across 30 countries and regions, making it the largest thematic philatelic exhibition in Asia), the Tour Exhibition Promoting the Spirit of the Beijing Asian Games, the Bid for the 2000 Olympics Exhibition, the Centennial Exhibition of the Olympic Movement, Chinese Athletes in Barcelona, and Open China Looking Forward to the Olympics. The museum receives over 200,000 visitors annually.

Here, you can learn about China’s long sports development history through unearthed relics, rubbings, and paintings; understand the challenges of China’s entry into international competitions through biographies of modern sports pioneers; witness the glorious achievements of China’s unprecedented sports development through the stories of numerous world champions; explore the history of the Olympic Movement and China’s relationship with it through a wealth of physical materials; and discover the diverse sports activities of China’s 56 ethnic groups and their unique customs through introductions to ethnic sports.

After visiting the Sports Museum, Mr. Juan Antonio Samaranch, President of the International Olympic Committee, said: “The China Sports Museum is one of the best sports museums in the world.”

Address: No. 3A, Anding Road, Chaoyang District

Opening Hours: 8:30 – 16:30

Location: Southeast of the National Olympic Sports Center in the Asian Games Village, Beijing

Area: Construction area of 7,100 square meters, exhibition area of 510 square meters

The museum features a unique octagonal fan-shaped architectural design that spirals upward. The exhibition space spans 2,500 square meters and includes eight exhibition halls: the Ancient Hall, the Modern Hall, the New China Sports Achievements Hall, the Olympic Hall, the Traditional Sports of Chinese Ethnic Groups Hall, and others.

The first section is the “Ancient Chinese Sports Exhibition,” which introduces the continuous evolution of sports in the Chinese nation from the Xia, Shang, Zhou dynasties to the end of the Qing Dynasty over a span of four thousand years. Through unearthed relics, rubbings, and paintings, it vividly displays the long and enduring trajectory of ancient Chinese sports. Here, you can see sports such as polo from the Tang Dynasty, cuju from the Song Dynasty, and chuiwan from the Ming Dynasty, from which you can easily trace the origins of many modern sports.

The second section is the “Modern Chinese Sports Exhibition,” which mainly introduces the history of the introduction of modern sports between 1840 and 1949, the mutual absorption and coexistence of modern sports with traditional Chinese sports, and the challenging journey of China’s initial steps onto the world sports stage, including participation in the Olympics and international competitions. 　

The third section is “Sports Achievements of New China,” which showcases the glorious accomplishments of China’s unprecedented sports development through world champion trophies, medals, physical artifacts, and photos of outstanding athletes such as Rong Guotuan, Chen Jingkai, Xu Haifeng, as well as heroic teams like the Chinese Women’s Volleyball Team and the Chinese Table Tennis Team at the peak of their success.

The fourth section, “Olympic Exhibition,” introduces the history of both ancient and modern Olympic movements and China’s relationship with the international Olympic movement.

The final section is “Traditional Sports of Chinese Ethnic Groups,” which highlights the distinctive sports activities of China’s 56 ethnicities. Transportation Information

Take bus routes 108, 18, 803, or 328 and get off at Aoti East Gate or Xiaoguan.

Beijing, Chaoyang District