Gansu Provincial Museum

Gansu Provincial Museum

Attractions Overview: Gansu Provincial Museum
Attraction Type: Museum
Chinese Name: 甘肃省博物馆
English Name: Gansu Provincial Museum
Best Time to Visit: All Year Round
Recommended Visiting Time: 3 Hours
Open Hours: Tues-Sun 9am-5pm (no entry after 4pm)
Admission Fee:  Free
Address in English: No.3 Xijin West Road, Qilihe district, Lanzhou City, Gansu Province
Address in Chinese: 甘肃省兰州市七里河区西津西路3号

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Why is Gansu Provincial Museum So Special?

Located in Lanzhou City, the Gansu Provincial Museum is the biggest comprehensive museum in the province. It is one of the best sights in the city and a visit is well worthwhile. Built in 1956, the museum covers a total area of 18,000 square meters (about 4 acres). Designed by the soviet experts, this museum will provide visitors with a unique and memorable experience.

Where is Gansu Provincial Museum?

Gansu Museum is located opposite to Friendship Hotel, in Qilihe District of Lanzhou. Its exact address: 3 West Xijin Road, Lanzhou (兰州市西津西路3号). It lies 8km west of Lanzhou Railway Station, 75km south of Lanzhou Zhongchuan Airport. This museum can be easily reached by the bus lines 1,18,31,50,53,58,59,71,76,77,103,106,129,132,134,137.

How to Get There?

Travel with China Dragon Tours (top recommended)

If you want to get rid of hustle of transportation and troublesome navigation, you can book a private tour package which covers visiting, dining and transfer from us. Our local tour guide and driver will escort you to Gansu Provincial Museum with speed and convenience, and take care of all the details. You just need to focus on travel.

Independent Travel

For independent travelers you can 

Buses: Almost all buses from the city centre to Xīzhàn (西站) will go past the museum (#1, 53, 58, 71, 74, 102, 103, 105, 106, 129, 132, 137). Get off at Qīlĭhé Qiáo (七里河桥) and continue walking for 3 minutes, or get off at Xīzhàn and walk back on yourself for 3 minutes.

Main Attractions in Gansu Provincial Museum

Gansu Provincial Museum is divided into two sections-natural resources and historic exhibits.

Historical Exhibits

It houses collections of various color-painted potteries of Neolithic Age and treasures of ancient grottoes. It displays colored pottery, wood carvings, exquisite Buddhist sculptures, relics left behind by the Silk Road culture and extinct animal specimens. The colored pottery in particular attracts much attention as Gansu deserves to be called its hometown; the place where the oldest colored pottery in the whole of China was found.

Natural Exhibits

The Museum also give some space for the exhibition of Paleontology and Fossils in Gansu. The earth, the only planet with life in the universe up to now, proivides homeland for over 4.5 million life – the forms and supplies the living conditions for human beings of the adanced creatures. However, many mysteries on earth are still under exploration.

Silk Road Civilization Exhibition

The ancient Silk Road is the blending between oriental culture and western culture, which left innumerable art treasures of that splendid history. In the Silk Road Exhibition Hall of Gansu Provincial Museum are over 420 pieces fine cultural relics of Silk Road, including bronze from Prairie Culture of North China, bronze horses and honor guard, silk fabrics, Buddhist states, gold and silver wares, the tri-colored glazed pottery of Tang Dynasty (618-907), and blue-and-white pottery of Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), etc.

Useful Travel Tips:

The museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 9:00am to 5:00pm. Entrance admission stops at 4:00pm. Though the entry into the museum is free of charge, you have to show your ID card at the ticket office by the gate to exchange for a free ticket.

Every morning (Monday closed) only 600 visitors and every afternoon ( Monday closed) only 400 visitors are allowed to enter the museum. If you travel on a group, your group have to reserve the tickets. So you travel independently, you are advised to go to the museum a little bit earlier to avoid the possible crowds of tourists.

Visitors have to go through security check before entry.

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Edited by Emily Wang/王海玲