Capital Museum 首都博物馆

About Capital Museum

Many objects come from discoveries in Beijing, making the museum a useful way to connect the city’s streets and monuments with its archaeological past. The building adds its own interpretation of that history: a broad roof, stone exterior, traditional archway, and tilted bronze-colored exhibition volume combine older architectural references with a modern museum plan. Spend time on both the entrance architecture and a deliberately chosen group of galleries.

The museum's founding traces to 1953, when the Beijing deputy mayor Wu Han and the Ministry of Culture's Zheng Zhenduo, after visiting a history and construction museum in Moscow, proposed a Capital History and Construction Museum for Beijing; a preparatory office was approved in 1954. The project was shelved during the early-1960s economic hardship and halted again by the Cultural Revolution from 1966, being revived and abandoned twice before a third attempt began in 1979.

The Capital Museum finally opened at the Confucius Temple on 1 October 1981, with 83,000 objects in its founding collection. A new, purpose-built museum was approved in 1999 as part of Beijing's Tenth Five-Year Plan, broke ground on Fuxingmenwai Street on 25 December 2001, and began trial operation on 16 December 2005 after relics were moved from the Confucius Temple, officially opening on 18 May 2006.

The building's design, including its broad roof and the sloped entrance square, is the work of architects Jean-Marie Duthilleul and Cui Kai. A large carved stone panel known as a danbi, depicting dragons, phoenixes, and imperial motifs, is set into the ground before the north gate, and a Ming-dynasty decorative archway in the reception hall illustrates the central-axis layout typical of Chinese architecture; the oval Bronze Exhibition Hall's slanted form is meant to evoke the unearthing of ancient relics.

What to look for

• Beijing-related collections: focus on objects unearthed in the city to connect the exhibits with local history.
• Reception hall and tilted exhibition volume: compare the traditional archway and axial references with the modern bronze-colored form.

Location & getting there

Getting to Capital Museum

The museum is at No. 16 Fuxingmenwai Street. The matched travel listing identifies Muxidi as the subway approach.

• Use the Fuxingmenwai Street museum address when planning arrival; the collections were formerly housed at the Confucius Temple, which is a different location.