Heyuan Museum

Heyuan Museum

Heyuan Museum is a base for patriotic education.

Heyuan Museum is located at the foot of Guifeng Pagoda in the southern part of downtown Heyuan, by the Dongjiang River. The museum was established on December 31, 1982. In June 1988, when Heyuan County was upgraded to a city, the museum came under the jurisdiction of Yuanzhou District. In January 1993, after being taken over by the municipal government, it was renamed to its current title. The entire museum covers an area of 18,000 square meters (including a 14,000-square-meter protected area for Guifeng Pagoda). The new museum building was constructed in October 1986, with a construction area of 1,700 square meters. The current collection includes 706 cultural relics, most of which were unearthed or collected within the former Heyuan County. The collection is dominated by artifacts featuring the folk culture of the Hakka region, mainly consisting of ceramics, wood carvings, and embroidery. The museum houses the Guangdong Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Unit—Guifeng Pagoda (from the Southern Song Dynasty) and its affiliated relic “Jinhua Temple,” making it a regional history museum. Its permanent exhibitions include the "Heyuan Historical Relics Exhibition," "Heyuan Dinosaur Fossil Exhibition," "Heyuan Ammonite Fossil Exhibition," and the "Ruan Xiaoxian Martyr Photo Exhibition." All of the above exhibitions and the Guifeng Pagoda Jinhua Temple are open year-round. The museum grounds are lush and green throughout the seasons, featuring scenic oddities such as the “Lovers’ Tree,” “Hundred-Child Banyan,” and “Sculptured Dinosaur.”

Especially since March 1996, dinosaur egg fossils and dinosaur bone fossils have been frequently unearthed in the urban area, making Heyuan one of the world’s regions with the highest number and richest variety of excavated dinosaur egg fossils—boasting both “eggs” and “dragons”—and also one of the best-preserved areas. It has now been recognized as the “Home of Dinosaurs in Southern China.”

Heyuan Museum was awarded the title of “Guangdong Provincial Advanced Cultural Unit” in 1995 and was designated as a “Heyuan Patriotic Education Base” in 1996. It has now become a major cultural and tourist attraction in the urban area.

Heyuan is one of the few places in the world that possesses both dinosaur egg fossils and dinosaur bone fossils. The fossils exhibited in the “Heyuan Dinosaur Egg Fossil Exhibition” have been authenticated by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences: the dinosaur fossils discovered in Heyuan are skeletal fossils of small carnivorous theropod dinosaurs dating back about 70 million years. Since the discovery of the first dinosaur egg fossil in March 1996, dinosaur bone fossils have also been found in Heyuan, breaking the conventional pattern of “having eggs without dragons or dragons without eggs.” This not only provides important information about the distribution and evolution of late Cretaceous dinosaurs but also adds new tourism resources to Heyuan.

Shangcheng Subdistrict: Shangcheng Subdistrict Office was established in March 1997 when Yuan Town was divided into subdistrict offices. Located in the old urban area, it borders the Dongjiang River to the east, Yuan Nan Town to the south, Xinjiang Subdistrict Office to the west, and Xinfeng River to the north. The office is situated at No. 74 Huancheng East Road and currently serves as the political, economic, and cultural center of Yuanzhou District. It covers a total area of 3.5 square kilometers, with a registered population of 39,292, 7,590 resident households, and governs six community committees: Shangcheng, Xiacheng, Xiajiao, Gongyuan, Xinxing, and Nanhu. The office houses internal departments including the Party-Government Office, Subdistrict Affairs Office, Economic Development Office, Family Planning Office, and Social Affairs Office... More details about Shangcheng Subdistrict++

Further Reading:

· National Second-Class Museum of China