1911 Revolution Museum 辛亥革命博物院

About 1911 Revolution Museum

The Red Building was put up by the Qing authorities as the seat of the Hubei Provincial Consultative Assembly, begun at Yuemachang in 1909 as part of the preparations for constitutional government and completed in 1910; Wuhan people named it for its red walls and red tiles. On 10 October 1911 Hubei revolutionaries fired the first shot of the Xinhai Revolution and took Wuchang, and the following day the Hubei Military Government of the Republic of China was formed in this building, with Li Yuanhong, a brigade commander of the Hubei New Army, made military governor, the Qing reign title abolished and the Republic proclaimed. Huang Xing arrived soon after as commander-in-chief in the field and led the Yangxia campaign against Qing forces coming down from the north. The site covers more than 18,000 square metres with nearly 10,000 square metres of buildings, standing west of the Yellow Crane Tower with Snake Hill behind it and Shouyi Square in front. The State Council listed it in the first group of national key cultural heritage sites in 1961, and a memorial hall was established here in October 1981, its name written by Soong Ching-ling.

In March 2022 Wuhan merged that memorial hall with the separate 1911 Revolution Museum to form a single institution arranged in a north zone and a south zone, occupying 42,000 square metres with 12,000 square metres of galleries. It is a national first-grade museum and holds 35,000 items or sets, among them 512 classed as precious cultural relics including 20 of the first grade. Five permanent and thematic exhibitions run across the two zones, and about ten temporary exhibitions are mounted each year. The museum also publishes: it has edited the journal Xinhai Revolution Research Trends for more than twenty years and produced over thirty documentary volumes and monographs, including compilations of Wuchang Uprising archives and Hubei Military Government papers.

What to look for

• The Red Building itself, the 1910 Hubei Consultative Assembly hall in red brick and red tile at Yuemachang
• The restored display of the Hubei Military Government in the main building, covering some 2,500 square metres and recreating the offices as they stood at its founding
• The Wuchang Uprising historical display in the west wing, with nearly 400 exhibits including original objects, photographs, artworks, models and reconstructed scenes
• Foundation of the Republic, the exhibition on the history of the 1911 Revolution
• The display on the history of the Hubei Consultative Assembly, the body for which the building was first put up

Location & getting there

Getting to 1911 Revolution Museum

Confirm the venue or campus, reservation channel and exhibition calendar. A museum name may cover more than one building.

• Search for 辛亥革命博物院 with 武汉市 and 武昌区.