Hainan Provincial Museum of Ethnic Groups

Hainan Provincial Museum of Ethnic Groups

The Hainan Provincial Museum of Ethnic Groups is a national AAA-level tourist attraction and a patriotic education base.

The Hainan Provincial Museum of Ethnic Groups is a patriotic education base in Hainan Province, located in Wuzhishan City, Hainan. It is managed by the Hainan Provincial Department of Ethnic and Religious Affairs. The museum opened in February 2018.

The Hainan Provincial Museum of Ethnic Groups covers an area of 56 acres with a building area of 3,772 square meters, featuring a traditional Chinese courtyard architectural style, adorned with carved beams and painted rafters, upturned eaves, and an appearance that is both ancient and majestic. The welcoming hall houses a large granite stone carving known as the “First Dragon Gate of Hainan,” standing 4.41 meters tall and weighing a total of 40 tons, made from 19 granite blocks. The main hall displays six large wall hangings of Li ethnic brocade, while the sides showcase traditional costumes of the Li and Miao ethnic groups.

The Hainan Provincial Museum of Ethnic Groups was first established in the autumn of 1981 and opened to the public on October 1, 1986. This museum with distinctive ethnic characteristics primarily focuses on collecting, preserving, and exhibiting historical relics from Hainan, revolutionary relics, and cultural artifacts of the Li, Miao, and Hui ethnic groups in Hainan. It conducts research on Hainan’s history and the traditional cultures of its ethnic minorities, rescues and protects ethnic cultural heritage, and provides revolutionary tradition education and patriotic education. It is also currently the largest museum in Hainan with the most extensive collection of cultural relics and a rich ethnic character. The museum showcases the outstanding traditional culture of Hainan’s ethnic minorities and serves as an important window for Hainan’s international cultural exchanges, promoting ethnic culture, and understanding the politics, economy, culture, and local customs of Hainan and its ethnic minority groups.

The Hainan Provincial Museum of Ethnic Groups houses over 30,000 cultural relics, especially notable for its collection of Li ethnic artifacts. The museum features six main exhibition halls—Hainan Historical Relics Exhibition, Hainan Revolutionary Relics Exhibition, Li Ethnic Relics Exhibition, Miao Ethnic Relics Exhibition, Hui Ethnic Relics Exhibition—as well as two thematic auxiliary exhibition halls. Through physical objects, texts, photographs, and videos, the exhibitions introduce the social life, cultural customs of the Li and Miao ethnic groups throughout various historical periods from the Neolithic Age to the liberation of Hainan, as well as their shared development and struggles with the Han and Hui peoples in building Hainan. The museum also includes a “Li Ethnic Tourism Village,” which features various houses built using ancient architectural techniques, as well as colorful performances of Li ethnic folk songs and dances, recreating the primitive village scene of the Li people before the 19th century. The entire museum combines knowledge, entertainment, and sightseeing.

Since its opening, the museum has hosted visits from Party and state leaders, ambassadors from 48 countries stationed in Beijing, the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Peru, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Mozambique, the Deputy Prime Minister of South Korea, former officials of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania, and other dignitaries.

In 1994, the museum was awarded the title of “National Outstanding County-Level Museum” by the National Cultural Heritage Administration.

Address:

Northern part of Wuzhishan City, Hainan Province

Telephone:

0898-86622336;0898-86639325

Opening Hours:

All day

Admission Fee:

Free admission.