Hulunbuir Ethnic Museum

Hulunbuir Ethnic Museum

Hulunbuir Ethnic Museum is the only comprehensive museum in the city. Its predecessor was the Hulunbuir League Cultural Relics Management Office and the Hulunbuir League Exhibition Hall. The museum building is a courtyard-style antique structure, with a total construction area of 13,000 square meters, featuring three floors of exhibition halls and an exhibition space of 4,500 square meters. The first-floor exhibition is "Pearls Scattered on the Prairie—Exhibition of Fine Mongolian Cultural Relics," the second-floor exhibition is "Cradle of Northern Nomadic Peoples in China," and the third-floor exhibition is "Homes of Northern Hunting and Nomadic Peoples." The museum currently houses over 10,000 cultural relics. It focuses on archaeological research on the Donghu, Xianbei, Shiwei, and Mongol peoples, and emphasizes the collection and display of folk cultural relics of the Daur, Ewenki, and Oroqen ethnic groups.

Hulunbuir Ethnic Museum was established in 1998 through the merger of three county-level units: the former Hulunbuir League Cultural Relics Office, Exhibition Hall, and Cultural Relics Store. It operates under two names: the Museum and the Municipal Cultural Relics Management Committee Office. With a staff of 33, it remains a county-level public institution affiliated with the Hulunbuir Municipal Bureau of Culture. The museum consists of seven functional departments: History Department, Ethnic Department, Exhibition Office, Conservation Department, Security Department, Office, and Tourism Souvenir Service Center. These include three senior professional positions, ten intermediate positions, and the rest are junior or support staff positions. The museum undertakes highly specialized tasks such as providing professional guidance to museums and cultural relics protection institutions across Hulunbuir, cultural relics conservation, field investigations, heritage site management, historical research, and public education. It safeguards over 10,000 precious cultural relics and specimens, including first-class relics, and manages more than 400 key cultural relics protection units and ancient sites at various levels in Hulunbuir.

In June 2003, the old site of the museum, located on the south side of Shengli Avenue, covering an area of over 10,000 square meters with a building area of more than 4,000 square meters, was demolished. The Hulunbuir Municipal Government decided to renovate and expand the old municipal government building into a new museum. The old government building, with an area of 7,000 square meters, is a 1950s-era imitation antique structure that is worthy of protection and eligible to be designated as a municipal-level key cultural relics protection unit. Renovating and expanding the museum in this location helps protect the building, and its geographic location meets all the siting requirements for a museum.

Construction began on October 1, 2003. The expanded area covers 7,760 square meters, maintaining a style consistent with the old government building. It combines a traditional Chinese courtyard architectural layout with a Western-style open green space. The completed Hulunbuir Ethnic Museum faces south toward Shengli Avenue and will become an important tourist attraction in Hulunbuir, offering visitors a multi-level space for leisure and exploration.

Hulunbuir Ethnic Museum — Cultural Significance: Hulunbuir Ethnic Museum serves as a carrier of regional historical and ethnic cultural heritage; a learning hub for students to revisit knowledge and build understanding; a sacred place for people of all ethnicities in Hulunbuir to appreciate culture; and a window for domestic and international visitors to learn about the profound ethnic history and culture of Hulunbuir.

The establishment and opening of Hulunbuir Ethnic Museum have significantly enhanced the cultural quality of the city’s urban development, providing a broad platform for inheriting, protecting, and promoting the cultural charm of northern hunting and nomadic peoples.

Further Reading:

· National Second-Class Museum of China