China Railway Museum
By admin on 2015-03-04

Attraction Type:

• Museums, Memorials & Research Centers in China

China Railway Museum in Beijing is the only national professional museum in China. It was formerly called the Museum of Science and Technology of Ministry of Railways. China Railway Museum is China's professional tech museum of railway system sponsored by the Ministry of Railways. The initial purpose of the museum was to carry out the work of cultural exhibition, film, exhibitions, model making of railway. In September 2003, the Museum of Science and Technology of Ministry of Railways was renamed as China Railway Museum. After years of development, its functions have changed from a single function of exhibitions into a professional museum that combines various exhibitions, conservation, research, dissemination, and other museum functions. It is mainly responsible for protection of cultural heritage railway industry, railway technological knowledge dissemination, development outcomes display of railway. China Railway Museum is a specialized agency that performs the heritage collections display, education, scientific research of China's railway. 

History

In February 1978, the Ministry of Railways of China approved the establishment of Ministry of Science and Technology Museum. In the same year in August, the Ministry of Railways Science and Technology Museum was officially established under the management of the Ministry of Railways. Since the establishment of the Museum of Science and Technology of the Ministry of Railways, it carried out the work of cultural exhibition, film, exhibitions, model making of railway, but there was no formal location. In June 1991, according to the instruction of the Ministry of Railways, the building of China Railway Museum was constructed. In September 2003, the Science and Technology Museum of the Ministry of Railways was renamed to China Railway Museum. 

Three exhibition Halls of China Railway Museum

China Railway Museum is divided into three exhibition halls: Zhengyang Gate Museum, Eastern Suburb Museum, and Zhan Tianyou Memorial Museum. Office of the museum is located on the NO.1 Building, NO.2 Yard, Liandao South Street, Xuanwu District Beijing.

Zhengyang Gate Museum
Zhengyang Gate Museum is main exhibition hall of China Railway Museum. It is located in the southeast side of Tiananmen Square. Zhengyang Gate Museum exhibits the history of the development of China's railway. The outline of the exhibition strictly follows 130-year development path of Chinese railway. The outline was divided into five phases according to the railway history. The exhibition makes use of a large number of informative historical vivid pictures to fully demonstrated China's railway development history. It provides the majority of visitors with information of China Railway’s past, present and future. It also provide valuable historical and important basis for historians who are interested in railroad history research. 

Eastern suburbs Museum
Eastern suburbs Museum is located in NO.1 Yard, Jiuxian Bridge North Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing. Eastern suburbs Museum exhibits locomotives with the construction area of 16,500 square meter. The exhibition hall has 8 shows lines equipped with different structures and different track bed sleeper. It can display 80-90 (vehicles) locomotive in one time.

The exhibition hall displays more than 50 refurbished locomotives, whose manufacturing time span from 1881 to 1993. Among them, there are 28 sets of steam locomotives, 8 diesel locomotive, one electric locomotives, 7passenger train, and 9 cargo vehicles. The existing Chinese oldest locomotive - No. 0 steam locomotive, as well as "Mao Zedong" and "Zhu De" locomotives that were named after the Chinese meritorious great men, are displayed in the museum. There are also a variety of different models of steam locomotives made in different time in British, America, Japan, Russia, Belgium and other countries. Here you can see a variety of passenger vehicles, such as vintage special bus and national leaders’ official cars. There are also different types of rail seat car, sleeping car, dining car, baggage cars and other different functions cars. The history relic in locomotive exhibition hall in China Railway Museum is not only the microcosm of the development China's railway, but the witness of China history development from the outdated period to the modernization of the railway in China.

Zhan Tianyou Memorial Museum
Zhan Tianyou Memorial Museum is located in the northern side of Badaling Great Wall north, the world famous tourist attractions. It is built to commemorate the establishment of special character Zhan Tianyou. The building area of Zhan Tianyou Memorial Museum is 2800 square meters, of which the exhibition area is 1850 square meters. There are more than 2,000 pieces of cultural relic’s collection. 

Zhan Tianyou (1861-1919) was an outstanding modern scientist, project management expert, engineering regulations expert in China. He was a pioneer in China's national railway undertakings, as well as Chinese pioneer of modern science and technology community. He graduated from Railway Engineering major, Department of Civil Engineering in Yale University,.

The basic display of memorial museum is divided into four parts and twelve units. It vividly demonstrates Mr. Zhan Tianyou’s patriotism, innovation, struggle, self-reliance glorious life through objects, pictures, charts, sand table model, scene recovery and multimedia video, touch screen and other forms and means.