Ningbo Museum

Ningbo Museum
宁波博物馆

Address: 1000 Middle Shounan Street, Yinshou district, Ningbo, Zhejiang province
Websites: www.nbmuseum.cn/col/col361/index.html (En)
www.nbmuseum.cn/ (Cn)
Hours: 9:00-17:00(no entry after 16:00)
Closed Mondays (except for national holidays)
E-mail: nbm@ningbomuseum.cn
General admission: Free (a max of 3,000 admitted daily)

Wang Shu, the first Chinese winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, is a name that cannot be ignored when talking about Chinese modern architectural history. As a professor in China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, Wang has created numerous masterpieces in Zhejiang province, including the Ningbo Museum.

Covering a floor space of 30,000 square meters, Ningbo Museum focuses on the history, culture, arts and traditional customs of the city of Ningbo.

The design of the museum is a conceptual combination of mountains, water and oceans. Decorations of the outer walls with old tiles and cement-covered bamboos demonstrate features of traditional Jiangnan (geographic area south of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River) residences.

On display in Ningbo Museum are a collection of more than 60,000 exhibits dating back to as early as the Hemudu Neolithic Culture 7000 years ago, including bronze wares, ceramics, bamboo-carving objects, jade pieces, calligraphy and paintings, gold and silver wares.

The first floor of the museum is constructed as a whole part, while the building starts to tilt on the second floor, giving the whole building a shape resembling that of a mountain or a boat. This design alludes to geographical features in Ningbo as well as the importance of maritime trade in its history, thus making the museum a symbol of Ningbo history and culture, as well as a delicate and creative exhibit in itself.