Situated at the southern bank of the West Lake, in Hangzhou City of Zhejiang Province, China National Silk Museum is the first state-level professional silk museum in China as well as the biggest silk museum throughout the world. Spanning an area of 50,000 square meters and a building area of 8,000 square meters, it opened to the public on Feb 26, 1992 and since 2004 people can visit it for free.

The museum owns eight exhibition halls, including: the Preface Hall, Relics Hall, Folk-custom Hall, Dyeing and Weaving Hall and Modern Achievements Hall.

The Preface Hall introduces the 5000-year-long history of Chinese silk culture. China is the earliest country that engaged in sericulture, filature and making clothes with silk. This hall provides strong evidence for this fact and shows the history of the Silk Road through which silk was spread abroad.

Relics Hall presents several preserved relics, which cover almost every dynasty of ancient China, and a number of pictures to explain Chinese traditional silk culture. These relics are from various districts of China, including those excavated along the Silk Road, on the grassland of Northern China, and in the south of China. It should be mentioned that tourists can appreciate a piece of fragmentary brocade that dates back 5,630 years. That is the earliest silk that has ever been discovered.

Tel: +86 571-8703-5223; +86 571-8703-5150

Add: 73-1 Yuhuangshan Road, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310002