Ningbo Museum. [Photo/nbmuseum.cn]

Ningbo Museum (宁波博物馆) is rated as a national 4A-level tourist spot, the second highest level recognized by China's National Tourism Administration.

The museum opened to the public on Dec 5, 2008. Covering a floor space of 30,000 square meters, Ningbo Museum focuses on the history, culture, arts and traditional customs of Ningbo.

The museum was designed by Wang Shu, the first Chinese citizen to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2012. The design is a conceptual combination of mountains, water and oceans. Decorations of the outer walls with old tiles and cement-covered bamboos manifest features of traditional Jiangnan residences.

The first floor of the museum is constructed as a whole part, while the building starts to tilt on the second floor, giving the whole building a mountain and also a boat shape. This design alludes to geographical features in Ningbo as well as the importance of maritime trade in its history, thus making the museum a symbol of Ningbo history and culture, as well as a delicate and creative exhibit in itself.

If you want to take a glimpse of the past and present of Ningbo, the museum is a perfect window for you. The museum covers a total exhibition area of 8,000 square meters, and is divided into three sections for permanent exhibitions, temporary exhibitions and theme exhibitions.

Ningbo Museum. [Photo/nbmuseum.cn]

Permanent exhibitions are located on the second and third floors with a total space of 5,400 square meters, showing the history, culture and traditional customs of Ningbo, including the bamboo artifacts donated by Qin Bingnian.

On display in Ningbo Museum are a collection of more than 60,000 exhibits dating back to Hemudu Neolithic Culture 7000 years ago, including bonze wares, ceramic wares, bamboo-carving objects, jade pieces, calligraphy and paintings, gold and silver wares.

Ningbo History Exhibition is a major exhibition of the museum, showing the history of Ningbo from the Hemudu culture era to modern times. Major stories are about ancient cultures, Yue Celadon Porcelains, scholarly traditions in ancient times, the expansion of the city as a major port, the Maritime Silk Road, and overseas Ningbo merchants. Large amount of artifacts, and historic photographs models are on display.

The museum has been organizing a wide range of educational events to meet the cultural needs of the general public and create a new lifestyle for them. Ningbo museum also takes the lead in setting up a sub-council for volunteers under the Chinese Museums Association and a research center on Maritime Silk Road, and actively explores new functions of the museum through these two national-level professional platforms.

Add: No 1000, Shounan Middle Street, Yinshou district, Ningbo, Zhejiang province

Tel: 086-0574-82815588

Transportation: Bus No 102, 107, 126, 129, 160, 166, 167, 168, 178, 182, 281, 362, 628, 635, 650, 661, 661-1

Ticket price: Free

Opening hours: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm (Last entry after 4:00pm), Tuesday to Sunday

Website: http://www.nbmuseum.cn/col/col361/index.html