With a floor area of more than 60,000 square meters, the Capital Museum is second only to the National Museum of China in terms of size.

Documenting life in Old Beijing through more than 200,000 relics and archival pictures, the museum has explanations in both Chinese and English as well as an area for cultural activities such as ink-rubbing or Peking Opera face-painting.

Currently, there are 5,622 relics on display.

The museum was formally opened in May 2006 after nearly four years of construction at a cost of 1.23 billion yuan (about 180 million U.S. dollars). It is in downtown Beijing, on the western part of Chang'an Avenue, the most important and famous street in the capital.

The architectural design concept of the museum is "based on human and cultural heritages to serve the society" and underlines "harmonious integration of past and present, history and modernism, art and nature."

There are three independent constructions within the new museum, i.e. the Rectangular Exhibition Hall, the Oval Exhibition Hall and the quadrate Office and Scientific Research Building. Spaced between them is the central hall and indoor bamboo courtyard.

Exhibitions at the museum are mainly collections and cultural relics unearthed in Beijing. Its goal is to adopt new design concepts to use modern exhibition technologies and methods to create a different exhibition style so as to give visitors a personal experience and make exhibition more lively and interactive.

The positioning of the Capital Museum determines its exhibition items: regular exhibitions, exhibitions of fine artistic collections and temporary exhibitions.

Regular exhibitions include "Ancient Capital Beijing -- History and Culture," "Ancient Capital Beijing -- Urban Construction" and "Old Stories of Beijing -- Exhibition of Old Beijing Folk Customs." "Ancient Capital Beijing -- History and Culture" and "Ancient Capital Beijing -- Urban Construction" show the splendid and glorious culture of the city.

Exhibitions of fine artistic collections include Collection of Ancient Chinaware, Collection of Ancient Beijing Bronze Art, Collection of Ancient Calligraphy, Collection of Ancient Paintings, Collection of Ancient Jade Ware, Collection of Ancient Buddha Statues and Collection of Gadgets of Studies.

The temporary exhibitions serve as a stage to study and appreciate the exchange relations between cultures of Beijing and the other regions and those between China and the world.

The museum has been free to visitors since March 28. But individual visitors, however, will have to reserve tickets and your entry time three days ahead via the Capital Museum website or over the telephone. Each visitor is allowed to reserve five tickets a day.

Group visitors could reserve tickets and entry time via the telephone. The museum's daily ticket reservation quota is 4,000. Please note the reservation number for entry.

A special exhibit costs about 20 yuan (2.9 U.S. dollars) and needs no advanced reservations.

Further Information:

Opening Time: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (last entry at 4 p.m.); from Tuesday to Sunday (closed Monday).
Address: 16 Fuxingmenwai Dajie, Xicheng District, Beijing
Telephone number for reservation: 6337-0491, 6337-0492
Website: www.capitalmuseum.org.cn/en/

(Xinhua News Agency July 15, 2008)