We decided to check out the Chinese Military History Museum earlier this week. According to many travel experts, this less-frequented visitor site was supposedly a diamond in the rough. We hopped on the subway and spent roughly 40 minutes traveling to our destination. It was rather pleasant to have the museum located directly across the street from a subway station. This made our commute very accommodating.As we neared the entrance to the museum it was our understanding that we would pay some sort of admission fee. As turns out, we were given two tickets from the ticket office and went on our way. According to our guide books there is a 10 yuan (less $1.50) fee but we got in for free. Four the next four hours we toured over four stories worth of war artifacts, photographs, artwork, tanks and planes. It ended up being well worth our time.
As we walked into the main foyer the first thing we saw was a 4 meter (over 14 foot) high statue of the famous Mao Zedong. It was made completely out of white marble. The museum is set up to showcase different eras in Chinese history so we began on level one. This floor focused on the Second Chinese Revolutionary Civil War during the 1920s and 1930s. Later we proceeded to the next level of the museum which centered on the War of Resistance with Japan during the 1930s and 1940s. Then we came to the third story that was devoted to the Third Revolutionary Civil War during the late 1940s. At each level we viewed room after room of rich, historical exhibits sharing China's transformation during the 20th century.
We read somewhere that this museum has over 5,000 different exhibits and we believe it! There were so many unique exhibits to see and take in. A good example of this was a particular hall on the fourth level that was dedicated to displaying hundreds of diplomatic gifts given to China through the years from countries all over the world. Pazi really enjoyed seeing a sombrero that México gave China on display.There was also a modern era hall dedicated to the more recent developments in China. It included things like economic milestones, discoveries into outer space, the achievement of completing the Qingha-Tibet Railway, and of course winning the bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. It was fascinating to see this shrine of accomplishments that Chinese citizens are extremely proud of.
Lastly, we toured two outdoor plazas full of weapons, vehicles, and air crafts used by the People's Liberation Army. We saw dozen and dozens of tanks, missiles, and fighter planes.The museum was closing as we left and we still did not get to see everything!
