National Museum of China

The National Museum of China (NMC) is the highest institution in China that collects, studies, displays and interprets tangible evidences demonstrating the best of China’s fine traditional culture, revolutionary culture and advanced socialist culture. It is a supreme palace of history, culture and art as well as China’s “cultural lounge”. The history of the NMC can be traced to the Preparatory Office of the Museum of Chinese History established in 1912. In 2003, the NMC was formally founded after the merging of two museums - the National Museum of Chinese History and the National Museum of Chinese Revolution. The renovated museum building, opened in 2011, has a floor space of nearly 200,000 square metres, making the NMC the largest museum in the world with a single building.

The NMC takes pride in its rich, diverse and excellent collection of great historical, cultural, scientific and aesthetic significance. It houses more than 1.4 million objects, including nearly 6,000 pieces listed as the first-grade national cultural heritage. All these artefacts document the splendour and glory in 5,000 years of the continuous Chinese civilization. In the museum galleries are presented three permanent exhibitions - Ancient China, The Road of Rejuvenation and The Road of Rejuvenation: New Era - and more than ten thematic exhibitions on Chinese bronzes, Buddhist sculpture, coins, porcelain, etc. As a whole, these exhibitions give a panorama of China’s tradition, revolution and socialist culture. Each year, scores of temporary exhibitions are launched here, attracting nearly 10 million Chinese and international visitors and making the NMC one of the most-visited museums in the world.

As a “cultural lounge” of China, the NMC undertakes the mission of promoting exchanges and mutual learning among different cultures. It strives to be a platform of international cultural exchange and a meeting place of civilizations of China and around the world.

Come and visit the National Museum of China! Discover China’s history, progress, openness and future!

Wang ChunfaDirector

Dr. Wang Chunfa graduated from Lanzhou University with a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in economics. He gained his doctorate in economics at the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He was qualified as a Research Fellow in 2000. Since 2017, he has been Director of the National Museum of China and Chair of the museum’s Academic Committee.

Dr. Wang worked at the China University of Geosciences (Beijing) and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences as a teacher and researcher. He was a visiting scholar to George Washington University, USA from 1998 to 1999. He once served as Director of International Office, Research Division of the General Office of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, Deputy Director General and Director General of Investigation, Research and Publicity Department of the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), Secretary of CPC Committee, member of the Leading Party Members Group, member of the Standing Committee, and Secretary of the Secretariat, CAST.

Engaged in science and technology policy research and management, Dr. Wang is the author of numerous monographs, including Technology Innovation Policies: Theory and Instrument and Facing Globalization of Science and Technology: China’s Road to the Future. He published more than 100 academic papers such as “FDI and Internal Driving Force of Technology Capability Cultivation”, “Social Functions of Scientific Culture”, and “On the Relationship between Scientific Culture and Construction of a World-Leading Scientific and Technological Power”. He presided over the compilation of Catalog of Technological Dream and Chinese Dream: Themed Exhibition of Modern Chinese Scientists, numerous volumes of academic biographies of modern Chinese scientists, and the translation of important academic works like The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, The Growth of the International Economy: 1820-1990, and the “Translation Series on Scientific Decision-Making”, etc.

In recent years, he became interested in museum management. He presides over the culture and tourism think tank project “Research on the Development of Chinese Museums”, the National Social Science Fund of China key project “Chinese Museum Development and Solutions Research” and national key research and development program “Smart Museum Key Technology R&D and Demonstration”, among others. Dr. Wang is also Editor-in-Chief of the periodicals Journal of National Museum of China and Museum Management.