Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution

Military Museum of the
Chinese People's Revolution
中国人民革命军事博物馆
	Main entrance of Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution
Location	Beijing, China
Coordinates	39°54′27.61″N 116°19′03.80″E / 39.9076694°N 116.3177222°E
Website	eng.jb.mil.cn

The Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution^[1] is the national military museum of China, located in Haidian, Beijing. The collection mainly focuses on military equipments and cultural relics reflecting the military history of the People's Liberation Army, ancient and modern Chinese military history, and world military history.^[2]

History

The museum's main hall before 2010s reconstruction, with a Dongfeng 1 (SS-2) missile in the center

The museum was one of the Ten Great Buildings erected in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, construction of the museum began in October 1958 and ended in August 1960, when it was inaugurated.^[3] On March 12, 1959, approved by the Chinese Communist Party's Central Military Commission, it was officially named the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution (hereinafter referred to as the Military Museum). Chairman Mao Zedong inscribed the name of the museum, and on August 1, 1960, officially opened to the public on the Armed Forces Day.^[4]

The museum was comprehensively reconstructed in 2012-2017 and reopened with a larger central hall that hosts a display of aircraft and missiles. The reconstruction allowed for a considerable expansion of the exhibition surface, from 60,000^[5] to 159,000 square meters.^[6]

Collections

The museum's four floors include ten halls, the largest of which is the Hall of Weapons. The Hall's extensive holdings of antiquated weaponry showcase domestic and foreign weapons, including blades, small arms, artillery, tanks, armored personnel carriers, anti-air weaponry, jet fighters, rockets and rocket launchers, and cruise missiles. Foreign weapons include Soviet tanks purchased or donated during the 1950s and 1960s, Japanese weaponry captured during the Second Sino-Japanese War, American weaponry captured from the Kuomintang during the Chinese Civil War and from UN forces during the Korean War. In addition, the Hall of Weapons displays equipment from China's space program, such as satellites and a two-seat orbital capsule.

With two exceptions, the other halls are largely historical exhibits, combining plaster sculptures, maps, paintings, artifacts, movies, and plaques (in Chinese, with select ones translated into English). The other nine halls include:

The Hall of the Agrarian Revolutionary War: Confrontations between 1927 and 1937 of the Chinese Communist Party and the ruling Kuomintang
The Hall of the War to Resist Japanese Aggression: The 1937-1947 Second Sino-Japanese War
The Hall of the War of Liberation of China: The 1945-1949 period of the Chinese Civil War
The Hall of Ancient Wars: Internal and external wars during the 4,000 years before the Qing dynasty
The Hall of Modern Wars: Internal and external wars between 1940 and 1949
The Hall of National Defense and Army Building: Modern military achievements and developments since 1949
The Hall of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea: Chinese involvement in the Korean War
The Hall of Presents: Gifts to the Chinese military or state by foreign militaries or states
The Hall of Cheng Yunxian's Sculptural Arts: Plaster reproductions of sculptures of world leaders, historical figures, Chinese Communist Party leaders and scientists by Cheng Yunxian

Equipment, Planes, Tanks, Artillery and various small arms on display

Planes

Soviet Mig-15 Bis
Nanchang Q-5
Mig-15UTI
AN-2
Xi'an H6
Tu-2
Captured P-51 Mustang
Shenyang J-8
Shenyang J-6
Mig-15 Repainted with North Korean Airforce roundels
Chengdu J-7
F-86 Sabre from a defected pilot in 1963
P-80 shooting star
Tachikawa Ki-55
De Havilland Canada U-6A Beaver
Shot down U-2 Spyplane
Shenyang JJ-6/FT-6

Tanks And Armoured vehicles

M46 Patton Captured during the Hoengsong fighting^[7]
T-62 545 Captured during the Sino-Soviet conflict
T 34-85
M42 Duster
Type 95 So-ki
M5 Stuart
CV-33
LVT(A)-4
M24 Chaffee
Type 97 Chi-Ha
M44 Self-propelled howitzer
M4 Sherman with the gun barrel missing, possibly Sherman number 012403
M4A3E8 Sherman
LVT
M36 Tank Destroyer "Jackson"
Type 62
M29 Weasel
Oxford Mk1
Universal carrier
Type 59D
Type 63
Type 63 AFV
M-8 Greyhound

Missiles

Gallery

Flag of the US 31st Infantry Regiment and UN insignia, captured during the Korean War.
Chinese Dongfeng EQ2050 vehicle
Second Sino-Japanese War Machine guns
Cars of Zhu De and Mao Zedong
Chinese first atomic bomb
Chinese PF-98 120 mm rocket launcher
A Dongfeng 2 (CSS-1) medium-range balltistic missile
A Type 72 metallic anti-tank mine on display at the museum
A ZBD-97 IFV vehicle
A Dongfeng 1 (SS-2) missile seen from the balcony
A Type 95 self-propelled anti-aircraft (SPAAG) vehicle
An American M79 grenade launcher
A PLZ-05 155 mm self-propelled howitzer
A KS-1A mobile surface-to-air missile (SAM) launcher vehicle