Discover Chongqing
Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum
重庆中国三峡博物馆
The city's main museum, built to record the Three Gorges valley before the dam flooded it, alongside galleries on Ba culture, the wartime capital and Chongqing's own history. The best context you can get before taking a river cruise.
The story
What makes this place special
The museum opened on 18 June 2005, the eighth anniversary of Chongqing becoming a directly-administered municipality. It descends from the Southwest Museum founded in 1951, which became the Chongqing Municipal Museum in 1956 and was reconstituted under its present name in 2000; the new building was begun in 2002. It stands at the west end of the Great Hall of the People, and the hall, People's Square and museum were laid out deliberately as one composition. Much of the collection exists because of salvage archaeology in the Three Gorges before the reservoir filled.
What you’ll discover
Four floors around a top-lit atrium. The core displays are 'Ancient Ba and Yu' on the region's pre-imperial bronze culture, 'The Magnificent Three Gorges' on the river and the valley that is now under water, and 'Years of the War of Resistance' on Chongqing as wartime capital. Two set pieces are worth planning around: a panoramic painted diorama of the Japanese bombing of the city, and a wrap-around film about the gorges. Signage in English is partial but present.
A little local insight
Good to know before you go
- Do the Three Gorges gallery first. It is the only place you can see what the valley, the towns and the carvings looked like before the reservoir — which makes a cruise afterwards read completely differently.
- The bombing diorama and the gorges film run on fixed cycles; check the times at the desk on arrival and build the visit around them rather than discovering them at the end.
- Cross the square to look at the Great Hall of the People from the museum steps. The two buildings were designed to face each other and most visitors only see one.
- Two to three hours is honest. People allow one and run out of time in the war galleries, which are the most substantial part.
- Bring your passport — entry is by ID registration even where there is no charge.
When to come
A weekday morning, and specifically a wet or hot day, since this is the best indoor half-day in the city. Closed one day a week, so check before you go.
Getting around
Good. The building is modern, with lifts to every floor, level galleries, wide circulation and accessible toilets. The approach from People's Square is across a large paved plaza with some steps, but there is a step-free route; ask at the entrance. This is the easiest major sight in Chongqing for a wheelchair user.
Worth knowing before you go
The Anti-Japanese War capital gallery is the one foreign visitors usually find most unexpected - Chongqing was China's wartime capital and was bombed for five years.
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