Xiamen museum

    Xiamen Museum is one of the important local comprehensive museums located at southeastern China which is devoted to collect, protect, study and exhibit the valuable antiques especially the one from Fujian and Taiwan Province.  For the purpose of exhibiting the cultural history of China in an exact, realistic and direct way, and enabling visitors to get to know the local historical development of Xiamen and understand the policies about the antiques so as to indulge its stately and luxurious cultural atmosphere which can inspire the patriotism and confidence of the folks.
    Xiamen Museum was planning to be founded in 1983 and it was first opened to the public in 1988. It was located at the famous place of historical interest Bagua Building in Gulang Island. With the development of economy and society of Xiamen, Bagua Building cannot be qualified to be the Museum for conservation and exhibition. First, it’s not large enough; second, its structure and function are out of date. The government of Xiamen rebuilt the old factory buildings of Xiamen Machinery Factory to be the Center of Art and Culture of Xiamen during 2004-2006. The new Xiamen Museum is located at northeast of the Center which occupied 25300 square meters and the exhibition hall is 9597 square meters; the depot is 2800 square meters. Compared with the previous Museum in Gulang Island, the new one is 6 times larger. In June, 2006, with the permission of the Xiamen Municipal Committee of CPC Organization Committee, Xiamen Zheng Chenggong'Memorial Hall and Cultural Relics Protection Center are united into the Xiamen Museum. Now the division of the Xiamen Museum is showed in the following picture. The Xiamen Museum is leaded by Bureau of Culture, Broadcasting, Television, Press and Publication. The Museum has 78 official workers and one of them is a doctor; 7 of them are masters; there are 10 professors and 7 associate professors.
    There are several basic exhibitions you can visit in the Museum now:  Exhibition on Xiamen History; The Ancient Stone Sculpture of Fujian and Taiwan Province; the Folk Exhibition of Fujian and Taiwan province；the Masterpieces of the Museum and so on. In 1998, the Folk Exhibition of Fujian and Taiwan prized one of the best exhibitions in China. In addition, there is a gallery planned: “the National Folk Instrument Exhibition”. Usually, you can visit the Xiamen Zheng Chenggong's Memorial Hall to know the stories of Zheng Chenggong; “the honorable memories of economic revolution exhibition” in Xiamen Special Economic Zone Memorial Hall, Former Site for Prison Break in Siming District and “the stories of Chen Huacheng” in The Chen's Ancestral Temple, “the Opium War and Xiamen” at the Former Residence of Chen Shengyuan.
    Xiamen Museum communicated with the other museums a lot. There are various temporary exhibitions you can visit. The important exhibitions from it founded until now are: the exhibition of the Xiamen Economical District; the exhibition of the Museum’s Jades; Art works of Xiamen; Sports Stars of Xiamen, Buildings in Gulang Island and the Pictures; Ancient Ceramics from Minnan; the exhibition of the construction of the Xiamen’s Seawall, the Pictures of the technology of protecting the antiques; Exhibition on References of family tree and related antiques of Fujian and Taiwan Provinces. Liu Haisu’s works- revolutionary memorial; the master piece arts of daily life; achievements of the Fujian’s museums for celebrating the 60^th anniversary of China; Women’s Day exhibition of the achievements of the weekend schools for women; Book-Flavor-Tea-Flower the master pieces from Fujian and Taiwan Province；The second invest forum antiques exhibition; the pictures of the third investigation of the antiques in China; the reservation of books and pictures of Liang Lianquan; the golden and silvery devices from the Palace Museum; Wangshi Cultural Exhibition, High-fidelity painting and calligraphy from all dynasties; The Revolutionary Antiques of Fujian Province; European Porcelains from Shanghai Historical Museum, the Cliff Paintings from Ningxia. The collections of the members of the ancient arts study and reservation union are exhibited. What’s more, there are some temporary exhibitions such as “the important construction achievements of Xiamen” and “the historical exhibition on Lujiang Yacht”. All in all, the staff of Xiamen Museum took part in the exhibition of the 30^th Anniversary of Xiamen Economic District Achievements.
    Xiamen Museum possesses a collection about 20,000 objects in which 3983 objects are certificated as rare cultural relics. Most of the collections are ancient ceramics, paintings and calligraphy, jades, stone sculptures, folk antiques and international souvenir.
    Xiamen Museum also makes great achievements on studying. It published several professional books by itself or with relative organizations, such as the collection works of Xiamen Museum in Ten  , Research on Ancient Ceramics in South Fujian Province, the Collection of Valuable Relics of Xiamen Museum, Book-Flavor- Tea-Flower the Maste pieces from Fujian and Taiwan Province, Xiamen Zheng Chenggong’Memorial Hall published some books including Xiamen Zheng Chenggong’s Memorial Hall, the Stories of Zheng Chenggong, Three versions of the Zheng’s Family Trees, Zheng Chenggong recaptured the Taiwan Province, Anecdotes on the Sea, Paintings and calligraphy collected in Xiamen Zheng Chenggong’Memorial Hall. The Cultural Relics Protection Center published the Historical Buildings in Xiamen. The experts of Xiamen Museum published Gulang Island’s Buildings and To Visit the Ancient Villas, Xiamen’s Stories, Xiamen’s Stone Tablets, Xiamen’s History, Research on Certification of the Bronze, Xiamen, China(English Version), Collections of Ancient Contracts in Xiamen, Plain Tricolor Porcelains of Zhangzhou Kiln, Xiamen Kiln, Putian Kiln, Xiamen City, Ancient Buildings in Xiamen, History of Xiamen’s Villiages, Honorable History of Siming Prison, Domestic Religions in Southeastern China. In addition, the professional workers of Xiamen Museum published about 300 articles in some important newspapers and magazines.