CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- A reporter of Chongqing Evening News learned from the Municipal Culture and Tourism Commission that the Municipal Cultural Heritage Bureau has released a directory of the city’s museums in 2020 to serve the public. Among which, there are 81 state-owned museums and 24 non-state-owned museums. The number of the city's national first-class museums increased from three to five. In addition, the reporter also found a lot of small museums. Of course, Chongqing residents who like to enjoy spicy food and hot pot can also find a hot pepper museum and hot pot museum in Chongqing.

Five national first-class museums

Chongqing residents are familiar with China Three Gorges Museum, Chongqing Hongyan Revolutionary History Museum and Chongqing Natural History Museum. All of these museums are located in the downtown area and classified as national first-class museums, and they are free of charge.

The reporter learned from the city’s museum directory in 2020 that in addition to the above three museums, Chongqing has added two more national first-class museums, namely Chongqing Three Gorges Immigration Memorial in Wanzhou District and Dazu Stone Carving Museum in Dazu District.

Chongqing Three Gorges Immigration Memorial is the only special memorial built to commemorate the one million immigrants from Three Gorges. It is also an important historical culture and immigration culture collection, protection, research and exhibition center in Three Gorges Reservoir Area, with an exhibition area of 7,000 square meters and a collection of over 27,000 pieces of cultural relics, covering the basic exhibits, permanent exhibits, and special exhibits. Located on Nanbin Avenue, Wanzhou District, Chongqing Three Gorges Immigration Memorial is open to the public free of charge from 09:00 to 17:00 (closed on Mondays).

The collection of Dazu Stone Carvings Museum mainly includes the remains of wild grotto temples represented by Beishan Mountain, Baoding Mountain, Nanshan Mountain, Shimen Mountain and Shizhuan Mountain, which are the pinnacle works of ancient Chinese grottoes art and of high artistic, historical and scientific value. Located on Beishan Road, Longgang Street, Dazu District, Dazu Stone Carving Museum is non-free, and open from 09:30 to 17:00 (closed on Mondays).

Cameras and stones in museum

The reporter found that the directory also contains a lot of special-interest museums.

If you like classical cameras, you can go to Yudu Classic Camera and Sewing Machine Museum in Yubei District. The museum includes camera exhibition hall and sewing machine exhibition hall. The camera exhibition hall displays more than 1000 pieces of cameras, equipment and facilities from different times, different countries, different types and brands. The sewing machine exhibition hall displays more than 750 old sewing machines and 10 sets of machines and equipment for the production of sewing machines from all over the country and even the world. Located at 19 Yinglong Avenue, Longxing Town, Yubei District, the Museum is open to the public free of charge from 09:00 to 17:00.

Dieyu Insect Museum in Nanchuan District, Chongqing Municipality displays the biodiversity of insects around the world. It uses a large number of ancient arthropod fossils, existing insect species, insect artworks and insect cultural articles as the carrier, and presents them in artistic and scientific ways. Located in Sanhui Village, Nancheng Sub-district, Nanchuan District, the Museum is open from 09:00 to 17:00.

If you are interested in Yangtze River stones, Chongqing Yangtze River Stone Culture and Art Museum is also a good choice to visit. The museum, with a building area of 336 square meters, displays more than 600 pieces of ornamental stones of the Yangtze River and famous people's calligraphy and paintings. The ornamental stones of the Yangtze River are mainly from Chuanjiang Section of the Yangtze River, Jinsha River, Dadu River, Minjiang River and Wujiang River. Located at 56 Xinnong Street, Yudong, Banan District, the Museum is open to the public free of charge from 09:00 to 17:00.

Hot pot as a work of art

Besides cameras museum, and the Yangtze River stone museum, there is a Hot Pepper Museum? Yes, you are right. It is Youjun Hot Pepper Museum located at Longshi Town, Hechuan District. It takes the culture of pepper as the theme, displaying the popular science knowledge of the functions of pepper in human nutrition, medical treatment and defense, as well as the stories, history, artworks and food related to pepper. Located on Longteng Avenue, Longshi Town, Hechuan District, the Museum is open to the public free of charge from 08:30 to 18:00.

In addition to Hot Pepper Museum, Chongqing people can also learn about the history of hot pot in a museum. Chongqing San’er Hot Pot Museum takes the hot pot collection as the theme, covering more than 1,000 pieces such as bronze hot pot, cast copper hot pot with melon flap and beast ear, pure silver hot pot, blue glaze dragon pattern porcelain hot pot, and shepherd picture porcelain hot pot. Located at Haihan Road, Jinfeng Town, Jiulongpo District, the Museum is open to the public free of charge, from 08:00 to 17:00.

Moreover, located in Jiulongpo District, Jiulong Aloes Museum is a special museum integrating the collection, display and research and development of aloes. The museum has more than 300 pieces of aloes from Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and other aroma-producing areas, about 5 million grams, covering all the aloes products from the high-quality aroma-producing areas around the world, and a detailed display of the classification of aloes and characteristics of aroma-producing areas. Located on Jiubin Road in Jiulongpo District, the Museum is open from 09:00 to 17:00 (closed on Mondays). (Translated by Liu Hongyan, Fathom Language Limited)