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Discover Hangzhou

Zhejiang Provincial Museum, Zhijiang Hall

浙江省博物馆 之江馆

The province's enormous new flagship museum, opened 2023, holding the 7,000-year-old Hemudu and Liangzhu finds, Song celadon and the Yuan painting collection. Free, uncrowded compared with West Lake, and the single best indoor option on a rainy day.

Free3 hours, easily a full dayClosed Monday (open on public holidays; closure moves to the next working day)Passport needed
Plan your visit Open map

The story

What makes this place special

The museum was founded in December 1929 as the Zhejiang Provincial West Lake Museum on Gushan Island in West Lake, scattered and then dissolved during the war with Japan, re-established at Longquan in 1943 and returned to Hangzhou in 1945. It became the Zhejiang Museum in 1953 and the Zhejiang Provincial Museum in 1976. It holds over 100,000 objects. The modern Zhijiang hall is now the main building; the Wulin branch closed in May 2023 when Zhijiang opened, and the historic Gushan site on the lake continues separately.

What you’ll discover

A very large new museum building with the provincial collection laid out across multiple floors. The objects that make it worth the trip are specific: Liangzhu jades, the Hemudu culture ivory carving, the sword of the Yue king Zhuji Yushi, and above all Huang Gongwang's The Remaining Mountain - the opening section of Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains, one of the most revered of all Chinese paintings, whose other and longer section is in Taipei. The painting was burned in two in the seventeenth century and the two halves have been in separate collections ever since.

A little local insight

Good to know before you go

  • Find out whether the Huang Gongwang is actually on display before going out there. Major Chinese paintings are rotated and rested for conservation and a surrogate is often shown instead - this is the single most common disappointment at this museum.
  • The Gushan site on West Lake is a different place with a different, smaller display, in historic buildings on the island beside the Bai Causeway. Visitors confuse the two and turn up at the wrong one.
  • Liangzhu jade here and the Liangzhu site park out of town are two halves of the same story. If you are going to the site park, see the jade first or last, not neither.
  • Free entry and closed on Mondays, with capacity booking - the standard Chinese museum pattern.
  • It is large and new, so allow half a day, and pick two or three galleries rather than attempting all of it.

When to come

Weekday morning. Indoors, so a good choice in rain or heat; weekends and school holidays are busy.

Getting around

Excellent. A recently built museum designed to modern standards, with lifts to every floor, level galleries, ramps, seating and accessible toilets. Fully wheelchair-usable; the only demand is the size of the building.

Worth knowing before you go

Bring your passport: entry is by identity document even though no booking is needed. The older Gushan hall by West Lake is a separate, much smaller site - do not confuse the two.

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