Lanzhou Museum

Lanzhou Museum locates in Chengguan District of Lanzhou. As a local comprehensive museum, Lanzhou Museum was established in 1984, based on the original site of the Baiyi Temple of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It covers an area of 4,700 square meters, including the exhibition hall area of more than 4,000 square meters, and the warehouse of more than 700 square meters. In 1996, Lanzhou Museum was authoruized as the "Patriotic Education Base" by the government. 

 

What to see in Lanzhou Museum

Lanzhou Museum is a medium-sized museum with 12,633 cultural relics, including 53 first-class national relics, 82 second-class national relics and 698 third-class national relics.

 

The museum has a full range of cultural relics and exquisite objects, which can be divided into pottery, porcelain, metal, stone, jade and paper. Among them, the painted pottery of Majiayao culture, paintings and calligraphy of the local celebrities in Gansu Province from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, jewelry crafts from Ming Dynasty, and cultural relics from Baiyi Temple are the key highlights in the museum. Also, the bronze bars dating back to the Western Zhou Dynasty (1064-771 BC), writing paper from Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), cloud-headed shoes from Tang Dynasty (618-907), statues of white porcelain of the Mingsu King are also precious collections due to their high culture values.

 

The painted pottery drum of Majiayao culture is the earliest percussion instrument known in China. The pottery urn of Majiayao culture unearthed in Lanzhou is 63 centimeters high and 56 centimeters wide, which is the largest found so far. 

 

Original Baiyi Temple

The Baiyi Temple was firstly built in 1631 during the reign period of Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty. Though experienced many times of the wars, the temple was preserved well. In 1984, Lanzhou Museum was built here. 

 

The Baiyi Temple Pagoda in the museum has a history of more than 400 years. It is a twelve-story pavilion-style solid brick tower. The pagoda is about 26 meters high. There are three Buddha statues in the original niche. At the half of the pagoda is the octagonal cone, which is 18.5 meters high. Each layer of the pagoda has a Buddha niche on each side, with one Buddha statue inside. Each layer has one wind bell hanging at each corner. 

 

In 2006, it was listed as the Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Unit.