Top Recommended Museums to Visit in Chengdu and Sichuan

Situated in Guanghan city about 50 km north from Chengdu city center (Tianfu Square), Sanxingdui (Three-star Piles Museum) is world-know for more than 4000 relics unearthed in 1929 from Sanxingdui Site that was the ancient capital 3000-5000 years ago. Honored as the “Origin of Yangtze Civilization”, Sanxingdui Museum is listed as one of the “Top 50 Appealing Attractions in China for Foreign People”. There are two exhibition halls and the second hall mainly shows different bronzes of ancient Sichuan, such as the Gold Mask, large bronze heads, exotic bronze threes, masks,, sacrificial altar, birds, human figures, etc. Ready to be shocked by the outstanding skills and amazing arts of ancient people.

Located in west of Chengdu, Jinsha Site Museum is built on the original location of Jinsha Site that is found in 2001 and the first important archaeological discovery found in early 21 century in China. Plentiful unearthed relics of gold, jade, bronze, stone, ivory are exhibiting in 2 main exhibition halls to show the historical culture of Chinese ancestors in ancient Shu Kingdom about 2900-3200 years ago. Inside Jinsha Site Museum, you can see the Golden Sun Bird and Golden Mask related to Sanxingdui Culture, and the former is the city logo of Chengdu.

Sichuan Museum is a first-class national museum which is located next to Du Fu Thatched Cottage and Huanhuaxi Park in Chengdu. It is a large comprehensive museum with 14 exhibition halls, displaying more than 320,000 pieces of historical relics about ancient Sichuan, including calligraphy and paintings, ceramics, bronzes, ethnic cultural relics, Tibetan Buddhism relics, stone carvings, pottery of Han Dynasty, etc. The must-visit part is the exhibition of Zhang Daqian’s (Chang Dai-chien) paintings on the second floor. Bring your passport for free entry, if you visit Du Fu Thached Cottage and want to explore cultural attractions nearby.

Chengdu Shu Brocade and Embroidery Museum, also called Shu Brocade Institution, is the only professional place in China to show all the processes of Shu brocade hand-weaving and the history and the culture of Shu brocade and embroidery. Items are annotated in English for better understanding. After touring the alive weaving and different sorts of fancy artworks, you may buy some Shu Brocade and Embroidery gits from the small shop with good quality and reasonable price.

Sichuan Cuisine Museum (Chuancais Museum) is the first museum to display a regional cooking culture in the world where you can learn Sichuan cuisine culture by viewing antiques and relics and using utensil, as well as cook the typical Sichuan dishes on your own to satisfy your taste buds. It will be great fun to play with Chuancais and taste many types of Chengdu local snacks there.

Located in the west side of Tianfu Square, Chengdu Museum (New Building - Chengdu China Shadow Puppets Museum) is a huge 5-storey building collected more than 200,000 exhibits, ranging from the the Neolithic Age to the the Republican period of China. Here you can see regular city relics and unique regional folk exhibitions of shadow puppets, puppetry, wooden carvings. Special international exhibitions will be held in Chengdu Museum irregularly.

Wuhou Temple (Chengdu Wuhou Shrine) is a first-class national museum featuring the Three Kingdoms Culture of Sichuan. It is a unique and the only shrine where Emperor’s tomb integrated with his prime minister’s shrine in one temple. A visit of Wuhou Temple helps you get more history about ancient Sichuan and the previous ancestors taking victory by wisdom and affected history of Sichuan.