As a public museum and a symbol of culturalfacilities combining the functions of collection,protection, research, and exhibitions, TianjinMuseum has received more than 1.5 million visitorsfrom home and abroad since its opening inDecember, 2004. It not only shows visitors theenriched historical and cultural accumulation ofTianjin through time and space, but also adds aunique cultural atmosphere to Tianjin.

Located at the Galaxy Square in Tianjin downtown,Tianjin Museum costs RMB 327 millionyuan and covers 57,000 square meters, withthe construction area of 35,032 square meters.Opening on December 20, 2004, Tianjin Museumis a large-scale comprehensive historicaland artistic museum based on the Tianjin HistoryMuseum and Tianjin Art Museum. Its constructionshape is similar to a swan that fliesabove the lake with clean and lively lines andfull of strong visual appeal and vitality.

There are 200,000 various artifacts in Tianjin Museum,including bronzes, ceramics, calligraphy,paintings, jade, imperial jade seal, ink-slab, oraclebones,coins, historical documents, local crafts,and other categories of collections. Among them,the ancient ceramics, calligraphy, painting, inkslab,coins and contemporary and modern historicalrelics are especially outstanding.

In addition, the Tianjin Museum also has abook and information centre, which contains200,000 specialized books.

The collections in Tianjin Museum are richin quantity and nice in quality, enjoying highreputation at home and aboard. These collectionsare not only wide in range, but also forma system in each character. What’s more, theage of collections spans from primitive societyto modern time. Among these collections,there are some valuable relics which deservethe reputation of “National Treasures”, such asthe world-renowned bronze “Taibao Chineseancient cooking vessel in Western Zhou Dynasty”.It is a rare four-legged square vessel withunique shape and exquisite casting and of historicalvalue and high artistic value. The famouscopy in Calligraphy history, the copy of WangXizhi’s “Calligraphy in the November 27th” inTang Dynasty, is one of the earliest copies ofWang Xizhi’s cursive and retains its original elegantappearance well. Another world treasurecollected by the Museum is Fan Kuan’s “thepicture of snow and forest” in Northern SongDynasty. It is one of the only two pictures ofFan Kuan, whose ink landscapes printings werethe representatives of the North School in themature period because of its magnificence andwell-design.

Tianjin Museum is not only entrusted with theimportant duty of protecting intangible culturalheritage of the region, but also is a place todisplay Chinese civilization and to continuethe local history and culture of Tianjin. Withinthe museum, there are a series of thematic artdisplays like large-scale historical display “Lookat the China of the last century in Tianjin”, thelarge-scale cultural relics display “Collectionsin the past hundred years — the display of valuablerelics in the museum”, and the “AncientChinese porcelain decorative arts display”.

Tianjin Museum, together with Tianjin NaturalHistory Museum and Zhou Enlai & DengYingchao Memorial Hall, is listed in the recentlypublished national-level museums.