Why is Three Gorges Museum special?
Three Gorges Museum is situated at the west part of the People’s Square of Chongqing, occupying the area of 30,000 square meters. The museum faces the Chongqing People's Assembly Hall, which is a symbolic architectural feature in Chongqing. The museum was completed and opened to the public on Jun 18, 2005. Actually, it is not only the largest monographic museum in China, but also a public undertaking for the preservation, education, scientific research in terms of cultural relics and the natural environment of Chongqing and the Three Gorges area.
The Three Gorges Museum is a place to deposit artifacts saved from important historical sites submerged by the artificial lake behind the Three Gorges Dam. Hundreds of archeological sites were submerged, and many objects were discovered and moved to the museum by various teams of scientists and archeologists.
China Three Gorges Museum attracts visitors from all over the world by its special culture, advanced high-tech and unique management. It has been an important platform of cultural exchanges of Three Gorges area.
Three Gorges Museum Highlights
The museum has four major themes: “The Splendid Three Gorges,” “The Very Ancient Ba Yu,” “The Urban Development of Chongqing,” and “The Anti-Japanese Days.” They reflect the history and culture of the Three Gorges, introduce the origination of the local history, state the transitional process of Chongqing and tell the stories occurred in Anti-Japanese period. There are other six specialized exhibitions of paintings, calligraphy, money, cultural relics, and ceramics. The special exhibitions are called “Paintings and Calligraphy in Different Historical Periods,” “The Money in Different Periods,” “Sculpture in the Han Dynasty,” “Cultural Relics Donated by Li Chuli,” “Minority Customs in Southwest China,” and “Ceramics in Different Periods of China.”
There are also dinosaur skeletons on display from nearby places in Sichuan Province. The Dashanpu dinosaur fossil site in Zigong held numerous fossil skeletons.
Another important exhibit is a 180 degree panorama of war-torn Chongqing in the period of bombardment by the Japanese over several decades. There is also a 360 degree cinema of Three Gorges that mainly shows the natural and social sceneries of Three Gorges prior to the construction of the dam project.