Discover China

China offers a fascinating array of museums showcasing aspects of Chinese culture and history. Coinciding with International Museum Day, CNTV has been presenting a great series of stories about an interesting selection of these museums:

• Tang Dynasty Arts Museum
• Suzhou Embroidery Museum
• Tianjin Theater Museum
• China Numismatic Museum
• Sichuan Cuisine Museum
• “China House” tells extraordinary story
• China Calligraphy Museum
• Traditional Medicine Museum in Hangzhou
• Costume Museum
• China Printing Museum
• China National Tea Museum
• Bazhou China Bicycle Museum
• Camel Xiangzi Museum in Qingdao

From the end of December 2010 we returned for my fifth trip to China, spending three amazing weeks visiting China’s capital Beijing as well as Tianjin, located south of Beijing, and Zhengzhou in central China. You can now read the story of my trip and see the pictures.

Hutongs are Beijing’s ancient city alleys, and are a major tourist attraction. Surrounding the Imperial Palace (Forbidden City), many of the hutongs were built during the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. You can learn more about Beijing’s hutongs in the CNTV Culture Express series Exploring Beijing hutongs and story 10 most attractive hutongs in Beijing.

Beijing’s Xianyukou Hutong, with a history of 570 years, has long been celebrated for its refined dining tradition. The CNTV Culture Express story Old hutong regains former glory reveals the traditional architecture and cornucopia of Beijing delicacies that visitors can experience in the newly reopened Xianyukou Hutong.

China’s largest automobile museum, Beijing Auto Museum, is currently conducting a two-month trial run, and will be officially opened in May. The museum has close to 50,000 square meters of interior space housing vehicles, parts, books, photos and other displays for visitors to learn about the history of cars. The vehicle collection takes visitors on a drive through time starting in 1885 with a replica of the three wheeled Benz Motorwagen, to the past Hongqi limousines, Shanghai sedans and Beijing Jeeps. Find out more in the CNTV Culture Express story Auto museum on trial run in southwest Beijing.