Located in Beijing, China Railway Museum is the only national and specialized museum of the railways. Founded in 1978, the main functions of China Railway Museum are collecting, preserving, studying, and displaying historical relics of China Railway. It contains three branch museums: Zhengyang Gate (Zhengyangmen) Museum, Eastern Suburbs Museum and Zhan Tianyou Memorial Hall. The exhibitions of each museum have their own unique characteristics and features.
Zheng Yang Gate (Zhengyangmen) Museum
Located on the southeast side of Tiananmen Square and east of Qianmen, it is the downtown branch of China Railway Museum. It was opened to public in 2010. With an area of 12,000 square yards (10,000 square meters), it has abundant exhibitions to showcase the history of China Railway since 1876.
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The exhibitions are divided into five categories with five specific themes and shown in five halls in a chronological order.
1st Hall: Start Period (1876-1911)
2nd Hall: Hard Period (1911-1949)
3rd Hall: Rise Period (1949-1978)
4th Hall: Rapid Development Period (1978-2002)
5th Hall: Scientific Development Period (2002-Nowadays)
The exhibitions include rare pictures, documents and videos that provide important evidences for the research of national railway history. Especially, the CRH-3 Bullet Train Simulator Cockpit wins popularity among tourists. The model is the same size as the real one. Tourists are allowed to get into and experience the feelings of being a bullet train driver. In addition, there are 3D movies with the theme of ‘Harmonious Railroad, Glorious Modern Time’; tourists can fully know the history by watching this.
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Transportation:
1. Take Subway Line 2 to Qianmen Station. Get out from Exit E2.
2. Take bus 8, 22, 82 or Sightseeing Line 2 and get off at Qianmen Station, then walk northeastward to the museum.
3. Take bus Express Line 1 to Qianmen Station and then walk eastward to the gate.
| Opening Hours | 09:00-17:00 from Tuesday to Sunday; closed on Monday. |
| Admission Fee | Free; visitors need to make an appointment at least in advance. |
Eastern Suburbs Museum
This museum is located at North Jiuxianqiao Bridge Road, Chaoyang District. The exhibitions mainly include over one hundred locomotives of different periods, types, and standards. All exhibitions are distributed at eight exhibition lines. “No. 0 Steam Locomotive”, and several others named after great Chinese people, like “Maozedong Locomotive”, and “Zhude Locomotive” are treasures of the Eastern Suburbs Branch of China Railway Museum. Besides, there are lots of steam locomotives of foreign countries such as USA, Japan, Russia and Belgium attracting tourists‘ eyes. Some locomotives allow tourists to tour inside. This museum is the best witness of China railway’s transition from backwardness to modernization.
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Transportation:
Take bus 418, 516 or 851 and get off at Nangao West Station, then walk westward for 100 meters (109 yards), then turn left and walk southward for 650 meters (711 yards) to the museum.
| Opening Hours | 09:00-15:30 from Mon. – Fri.; 09:00-16:00 on Saturday, Sunday and public holidays. |
| Admission Fee | CNY 20; free for minors and the old aged over 60. |
Zhan Tianyou Memorial Hall
This memorial hall is located to the north side of Badaling Great Wall. The purpose of building it is to commemorate Zhan Tianyou, an eminent Chinese railroad engineer and “the Pride of the Chinese Nation” admired by former Prime Minister Zhou Enlai. Covering an area of 3,349 square yards (2,800 square meters), this hall contains more than 2,000 historical relics. Lots of entities, pictures, figures, scaled models and videos embody Zhan Tianyou’s great contributions to the development of China railway. Besides, tourists can see numerous glorious achievements of China modern railway.
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Zhan Tianyou Memorial Hall has three exhibition halls. The first is ‘Seek Knowledge Hall’. It tells the lifetime and several important turning points of Zhantianyou. The second is ‘Serve Country Hall’. After being promoted as an engineer, he tried to devote himself into the career of building railroad. After four years’ construction, he designed and accomplished the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway – the first railroad in China. From then on, many advanced technology were imported by him. More and more railroads were built one after another. The exhibitions in Serve Country Hall mainly include Zhan’s gradienter, signet, and cloisonné chime clock. The third is ‘Cherish Hall’. Some exhibitions in this hall show the activities that commemorate great Zhan Tianyou.
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Transportation, Ticket & Hours
Take bus Leisure & Sightseeing Special Line 5 from Deshengmen and get off at Badaling Great Wall Station.
| Opening Hours | 9:00-16:30. Ticket sale stops after 16:30. Closed on Mondays |
| Admission Fee | CNY 20; free for minors and the old aged over 60. |
Attractions around China Railway Museum Qianmen Branch:
Lao She Teahouse
Qiaomen Food Streets
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