This museum, founded in 1987 and run by Beijing Gongmei Group, is one of the first museums to be owned by enterprises. Yet, its voluminous collections of arts and crafts, a total of 3,000 rare pieces, are comparable to that of any provincial museum.

Main attractions: The most prized collections include precious works of carved jade and lacquer, cloisonne, wood and ivory carving and bronzes created by a number of national-level masters. Besides its own collections on display, theme exhibitions are held at least once a month, co-sponsored by the museum and museums or companies involved in arts and handicrafts from all across China. So there are always new things to see.

Pity: Its display area, 500 square metres, is small and very limited, since it is located in a corner on the fourth floor of the Beijing Gongmei (Arts and Handicrafts) Mansion. However, it can be a big day out if you deem the whole mansion a huge museum.

Add: 200 Wangfujing Daji;

Entry ticket: 10 yuan (US$1), 5 yuan (US$0.6) for students, and sometimes even free of charge when co-organizers of new theme exhibition require;

Opening hours: 10:00AM - 7:00 PM, daily;

Traffic: Ttake the subway to Wangfujing, go north and pass Oriental Plaza;

Tel: 86-10-65289326.

(China Daily February 10, 2006)