Beijing’s cultural heritage profited from the 2008 gold rush, new palace rooms were opened, museums rebuilt, and new museums popped up. The following is a list of the finest museums in Beijing for viewing collections of ancient objects, ephemera, folk arts, and other things that contribute to the depths of the visual culture that is China. For a NYT article on the semi-recent museum policies in China, see “China’s Legacy: Let a Million Museums Bloom“

To find addresses, contacts or maps to the following museums, please consult the Museums and Gallery Guide of ching.org.cn, or this tourism site, their listings should be accurately updated, although their descriptions might be a little dry. Please note that a recent “free museum” policy dictates visitors call ahead to reserve tickets, on busy holidays and weekends the daily quotas can be exceeded, so best to call ahead, and bring your I.D. card or passport. See also a new guide to China’s Museums, reviewed on sinopop.

Palace Museum 故宫博物馆
The collection at the Palace Museum in Beijing might not house as many extraordinary pieces as that in Taipei (the fleeing nationalist took the bulk of the imperial treasures to Taiwan over half a century ago), but it is the jewel in China’s crown. For detailed information on the Palace Museum’s collection, wiki has complete information. As of February 2009, the two palace museums are in discussions about an exchange of works for an exhibition, from the Mainland to Taipei. The Mainland’s relentless claims to the objects in Taipei’s National Palace Museum make it unlikely that the objects there will be on display in Beijing, for fear they will never be returned. Nonetheless, the Beijing Palace rotates its collection for display, and has retained the bulk of the clocks, which are on permanent display within the palace, still the premiere location to view the imperial treasures.

National Museum 中国国家博物馆
On the east side of Tiananmen Square, this behemoth of a socialist edifice has a significant collection of 620,000 historical artifacts spanning Chinese history. But you can’t see any of it––she’s just a sleeping elephant now, massive restoration will see her doors reopened in 2010, with 28 new exhibition halls and more than double the previous exhibition space for a whopping 192,000 square meters. Befitting the reputation of China’s national museum, this will be one of the largest museums in the world; her socialist facade will remain unchanged.

National Art Museum of China 中国美术馆
The national art gallery has come under a lot of heat for its lack of “curatorial integrity”––meaning that it rents itself out at high costs to anyone who can foot the bill. New museum director Fan Di’an is trying to change that, of course, but change in China is slow “like turning a freighter on a dime”. Exhibitions are short (from 10 days to three weeks) and quality is greatly varied. A great new website has updated exhibition information in English, and there are usually a few concurrent shows featuring anything from folk arts to ink and brush works, to conceptual sculptures by famous artists like Zhan Wang.

Capital Museum 首都博物馆
This stunning building was co-designed by French-Chinese architects, its shape is supposed to mimic a bronze vessel, and oh, so many contents does it have! One day won’t be enough to go through the exhibitions. There are folk customs, folk art, Buddha statuary and a thorough Beijing history in dioramas and ephemera in the Western part; in the “cone” there are exhibitions of jade objects, painting and calligraphy, and Yan bronzes unearthed in surrounding Beijing. On the very top floor of you can visit a mock “scholar’s room” where relevant tools are on display, paper, ink, seals and brushes. Read an introduction to the museum here.

Beijing Museum of Natural History 自然博物馆
While not exactly housing a collection of art objects per say, the Beijing Museum of National History is housed in an enormous Soviet-style exhibition hall similar to the National Art Museum and National Museum. For kitsch junkies, the museum still has a whiff of China’s old-school exhibition layout and dioramas, lots of dinosaur skeletons, and still shows the frightening skinned human bodies.

Poly Museum 保利伯博物馆
The Poly Museum was established by the Real-estate conglomerate the Poly Group, its stated goal is to “repatriate” lost treasures into China. One of the treasures of this little museum is four of the 12 zodiac animal heads that were looted from the Old Summer Palace in 1860. The rest of the museum features a well-presented collection, and is located in the new Poly Plaza — the brutalist looking concave building on the southwest corner of Dongsi Shitiao (subway).

Central Academy of Fine Arts 中央美术学院美术馆
The new CAFA Art Museum was designed by Japanese architect Arata Isozak, its bizarre shape has elicited love-hate responses from the public and students. Located on the northeast corner of the campus, the museum has a small collection of works from famous alumni, and hosts rotating exhibitions and occasional trendy product launches.

Arthur M. Sackler Museum 北大塞克勒博物馆
One of three museums benefiting from Arthur M. Sackler’s endowment, Beijing University’s museum has an excellent collection of bronzes. The school is renowned for the best archeology department in the country, many objects on display were excavated by the students and staff from the Archaeology Department, their collection includes 10,000 objects spanning a period of 280,000 years, from Paleolithic hominids and stone tool remains to costumes, ceramics and paintings of the present era.

Prince Gong’s Mansion 恭王府
Aside from being China’s best preserved Qing mansion and gardens, Prince Gong’s Mansion has a collection of calligraphy, paintings, jade objects, bronzes, and furniture in various states of display around the home. Built in 1777, the mansion reopened in summer 2008 with more rooms than ever available for viewing. Live opera performances are staged in authentic surroundings on the stage, closed in the winter season, website not in English.

Museum of Ancient Architecture 古代建筑博物馆
Located within the Altar of Agricultural sacrifice west of the Temple of Heaven, this charming museum features a floor model of Old Beijing, meticulous wooden models of ancient architecture and a pictorial analysis of building history in China. The entire museum was recently renovated, and is said to be “better” than before, from reliable sources. If you didn’t know about the fascinating art of mortise and tenon architecture, you will when you leave here. There are also some interesting pre-Qin tiles and bricks (although I can’t attest to their authenticity) This museum is sort of an antithesis to the Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall (see below).

China Millennium Monument 中华世纪坛
Built as a monument to the millennium, the pseudo-modern shape of this building actually houses China’s collection of international arts and is dedicated to displaying art from around the world. A few contemporary Chinese art exhibitions have surfaced here, overall the venue is more geared to a conservativeChinese audience, nonetheless, the Millennium Monument bring in quality exhibitions, with high profile works.

Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall 京市规划展览馆
And you thought that Beijing didn’t know anything about urban planning…here are four floors of objects, maps, and highlights of the city. No surprise, you can get a modeled look at Olympic architecture, the CCTV tower, as well as ancient architecture, but the highlight is the exhibit where Google Earth has been reproduced room size: a lighted diorama shows you the highlights in the city center, glass underlit tiles show highly photoshopped satellite images of the remaining city.

Song Tang Zhai Museum of Traditional Folk Carving 松堂斋民间雕刻博物馆
Li Songtang opened his museum of carvings (mostly architectural structural elements) in 2001,  it was the first privately-owned museum in China and maintains the atmosphere of a collector’s shop. There are 3000 items on display, including wooden piers and stone carvings collected from homes across Beijing. Mr. Li is doing his best to preserve a bit of the cultural heritage that is demolished for the new, modern Beijing. Admission is by donation; please note the new location at Guozijian, 300 meters across from the western gate of the Lama Temple (Yonghe Gong)

China National Film Museum  北京电影历史博物馆  
Its distinct shape protruding from the flat, desolate surrounding farmland has made the Cinema museum a signpost for gallery-goers in Caochangdi. The interior is just as odd as the facade, with five floors of maze-like Chinese film history presented in dioramas and over many, many film stills on posterboard (all Chinese). There is also an imax theater, and daily screenings of films in a digital, state of the art theatre (see website for schedule).

Cultural Palace of Nationalities (Ethnic Minorities) 民族文化宫
The truly socialist-China mission of this place inspires nostalgia for the old days, when happy ethnic minorities might have paraded for commie leaders in celebration of racial harmony. The building retains a pre-reform grace, and rotating exhibitions feature the costumes, musical instruments, and arts and crafts of those 56 national minorities.

Ming Huang Wax Palace 明皇蜡像宫
With 26 independent scenes illustrating Ming dynasty life and 374 wax figures, Ming Huang is keeping that creepy art of wax portraiture alive. Perhaps there was surplus talent left over after the celebrated wax figure in Tiananmen … Located in Changping, north of the city. A must-do pilgrimage for followers of the cult of strange.

A view inside the Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall