Guangdong Museum

Located on the previous site of Sun Yat-sen University on Wenming Road in Guangzhou, the Guangdong Museum is a provincial-class integrated museum, consisting of the Museum Exhibition Hall, the site of the First National Congress of Kuomintang, and the Luxun Museum. Construction of the museum began in 1957 and was completed 1959.

The museum features a huge collection of 124,000 regional artifacts, including pottery, calligraphic and painting works, ink slabs, golden wood carvings and many other excavated artifacts. The collection includes 300 Grade 1 artifacts and a few national treasures, such as the Ink Dragon Drawing by Chen Long in the Song Dynasty (960–1279), a Monkey King ink slab from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and a white glaze Sakyamuni figurine dating back to the first year of the reign of Emperor Xi Ning of the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127), all of which are the only ones in China.

Free admission
Opening hours: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm (closed on Monday)

Guangzhou Museum

The Guangzhou Museum is an integrated museum focused on the local history, set in the Zhenhai Tower in Yuexiu Mountain in Guangzhou. Construction of the Zhenhai Tower started in the 13th year of the reign of Emperor Hong Wu of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). In its more than 600 year history, the tower has destroyed and rebuilt five times. Originally a brick and wood structure, the tower was renovated into a reinforced concrete structure in 1928. It commands a panoramic view of Guangzhou, dubbed the "No. 1 tower south of the Five Ridges".

The museum's collection includes 50,000 artifacts in various categories, which are precious historic materials for researching Guangzhou's politics, economy, culture and outward communications and trade, as well as the city's construction and development.

Opening hours: 9:00 am —5:30 pm

Lu Xun Museum

Lu Xun (1881-1936) was a great revolutionary, thinker and writer in China's modern history.

Set in the Tower Bell on the campus of Sun Yet-sun University, the Lu Xun Museum was built in 1957 and opened in 1959. On January 18, 1927, with the recommendation of the CPC Guangdong District Committee and at the invitation of Sun Yat-sen University, Lu Xun left Xiamen for Guangzhou, where became Chairman of the Chinese Language Department and Dean of Studies at Sun Yat-sen University. He first lived in the Bell Tower at the university and moved to the White Cloud House on Baiyun Road on March 29.

The Lu Xun Museum contains the restored bedroom and study occupied by Lu Xun during his teaching career at the university, as well as the restored conference room for university affairs. The exhibits in the rooms are actual objects from that time. The museum also has a section displaying Lu Xun's biographical facts and nearly 10,000 exhibits, including Lu Xun's manuscripts, historic objects, photos and documents. A computer retrieval system for the Complete Works by Lu Xun is also in place at the museum.

Guangdong Museum of Art

The Guangdong Museum of Art features an artistic design and serves multiple functions. It's a non-profit permanent national cultural institution opened to the public and serving society and social development.

The museum has a floor area of more than 20,000 square meters, containing 12 exhibition halls and an outdoor sculpture display area, where large-scale exhibitions and different thematic exhibitions can be simultaneously or separately held. Indoor and outdoor exhibition spaces total 8,000 and 5,000 square meters, respectively. Permanent exhibits include early modern coastal artistic works and contemporary Guangdong fine arts works. Also on display are sculpture, paintings and pottery works. Each year, the museum also hosts various kinds of thematic exhibitions, invitational exhibitions, and requested exhibitions.

Guangzhou Museum of Art

The Guangzhou Museum of Art is China's only large-scale modernized art museum that features multiple prominent artists, thematic exhibitions, and exchange shows.

Permanent exhibitions halls at the museum include the hall for Chinese paintings from past dynasties, the hall for the Chinese calligraphy from past dynasties, the Foshan pottery hall, the thematic exhibition hall, and the sculpture display area. The first group of exhibits on display includes 1,027 artistic objects and 1,289 material objects in various categories, such as Chinese paintings, oil paintings, watercolors, gouaches, prints, charcoal drawings, sketches and sculptures, as well as more than 10,000 pieces of tablet inscriptions, rubbings, thang-ka and brassware. With a vast collection of exquisite objects, the museum ranks among China's top art museums.

The Guangzhou Museum of Art was designed under the supervision of Mo Bozhi, a leading architect and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. It is a building complex that blends Lingnan architecture with gardening and incorporates contemporary characteristics, featuring rich lines, towering structures, elaborate landscaping and exquisite decoration.

Guangdong Revolutionary History Museum (Guangzhou Modern History Museum)

The Guangdong Revolutionary History Museum is a thematic museum presenting Guangdong's revolutionary history over the past century.

The premises of the present museum housed the former Guangdong Consultative Council in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911); they were also an important revolutionary site during the Great Revolution Period.

In 1957, the Guangzhou Municipal People's Committee made the decision to build the Guangdong Revolutionary History Museum on this site. The museum's permanent exhibition aims to illustrate the history of Guangdong people's revolutionary struggle over the past century from the outbreak of the Opium War to the founding of the People's Republic of China. In order to give a full presentation of the evolution of Guangzhou's modern history, in July 1996, the Guangzhou Modern History Museum was established on the premises of the Guangdong Revolutionary History Museum, with the two museums housed under the same roof. The Guangzhou Modern History Museum focuses on presenting the historical conditions of Guangzhou between 1840 and 1949 in various aspects, including politics, economy, health, education, culture, and folk customs.

The Museum of Huangpu Military Academy

The Museum of Huangpu Military Academy is located on Changzhou Island in Huangpu, Guangzhou. Huangpu Military Academy was a brand-new military academy built by Sun Yat-sen during the Great Revolution with the assistance of the Communist Party of China and the Soviet Union. The academy was charged with the mission of "building a revolutionary army and saving China from danger" and observed the school motto of "Fraternity, Dexterity and Sincerity". It fostered revolutionary military talents by drawing upon the Soviet Union's army building experience, and produced a significant number of generals and military officers, thus playing an important role in China's early modern history and military history.

The academy had seven intakes in Huangpu before it was relocated to Nanjing in 1930. Its principal campus was destroyed by Japanese bombing in 1938. In 1988, the academy was declared a national-level protected site. In 1996, the Guangzhou Municipal Government restored the principal campus of the academy to its original conditions, bringing it back to its former glory.

Guangdong Museum of Folk Arts (Chen Clan's Academy)

The Chen Clan's Academy, commonly known as the Chen Clan's Temple, is a national-level protected cultural heritage site, and houses the Guangdong Museum of Folk Arts. Construction of the Chen Clan's Temple started in the 14th year of the reign of Emperor Guang Xu of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and was completed in the 20th year of the reign. Located beyond the western gate of the town of Guangzhou in the Qing Dynasty, it was a shared clan temple built with donations from Chen clan members in 72 counties in Guangdong Province. The Chen Clan's Academy features an architectural style typical of ancestral halls in Lingnan. It's the largest; most sumptuously decorated and best preserved traditional structure in Guangdong Province, dubbed the gem of Lingnan artistic architecture.

The Chen Clan's Academy is a conglomeration of Guangdong's folk architectural styles and features an ingenious application of decorative arts, such as wood, brick and stone carvings, lime-clay mixtures, pottery sculptures, iron castings, and paintings, all of which are masterpieces of folk arts with different themes, vivid designs, rich colors, and consummate workmanship.

In 1959, the Chen Clan's Academy was converted into the Guangdong Museum of Folk Arts, which collects studies and displays folk handicrafts made in Guangdong and the rest of the country during the bygone dynasties. The museum showcases scores of different types of valuable artifacts and handicrafts, such as pottery, embroidery and sculptures, which reflect Lingnan's folk customs. These exhibits contain a high value for research and appreciation.

The Museum of the Peasant Movement Institute

The Museum of the Peasant Movement Institute was built on the site of the former Panyu Academic Palace (the Confucian Temple), whose construction started in 1370 (the third year of the reign of Emperor Hong Wu of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)).

The national revolutionary movement experienced a vigorous growth after the first cooperation between the Chinese Communist Party and Kuomintang was carried out. In an effort to facilitate the imminent Northern Expedition and to stimulate the nationwide peasant movement, in May 1926, the Sixth Session of the Peasant Movement Institute, headed by Mao Zedong, was held here, where 327 trainees from 20 provinces and regions received education in the theory and methodology of peasant movements, underwent vigorous military training, and took part in important social activities. Upon graduation, they traveled throughout the country to spearhead peasant campaigns against imperialism and feudalism, making significant contributions to the Chinese revolution.

The museum has also restored the Minglun Hall and Guangji Hall on the eastern road of the Panyu Academic Palace. Today, the museum presents exhibitions on Confucius and Confucianism, China's imperial examination culture, and academic palaces throughout Guangdong.

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