The Suzhou Museum was established in 1960 on the site of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Zhongwang Mansion. The Zhongwang Mansion of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is the most complete set of historical buildings of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In 1999, I.M. Pei, a well-known Chinese architect, was invited to design the new Suzhou Museum, which was officially opened on October 6, 2006. Nowadays, the Suzhou Museum includes two parts of the building complex of Tianping Tianguo Zhongwang Mansion and the new museum, forming a pattern of combining ancient buildings and modern buildings, and becoming a comprehensive museum with unique landscape garden characteristics.
The new Suzhou Museum is I.M. Pei's crowning work, and the designer's name alone makes the museum very popular, and the new building itself is a sight to behold. The design of the new Suzhou Museum is inspired by the designer's childhood memories of the streets and alleys of Suzhou. Therefore, the new museum adheres to the characteristics of Suzhou gardens in terms of architectural form, color collocation, and layout style, with cornices and corners, whitewashed walls and gray tiles, gurgling water, and also adds a creative landscape of "using walls as paper and stones as paintings". In addition, the architectural highlight of the new building is that the interior of the building uses natural light to the maximum extent, and the interior is open and open during the day, and there is almost no need for lighting.
As a famous historical and cultural city, Suzhou naturally has many precious cultural relics, but most of the rare cultural relics are stored in museums above the provincial level such as the Nanbo, Shangbo and even the National Museum. In contrast, the Suzhou Museum, as a municipal museum, is much thinner in terms of collections. At present, there are more than 40,000 pieces of first, second and third level cultural relics in the collection of Suzhou Museum, among which the archaeological relics unearthed over the years, Ming and Qing Dynasty calligraphy and paintings, and handicrafts are famous. The secret color porcelain lotus bowl of the Five Dynasties, the Pearl Relic Treasure of the Northern Song Dynasty, and the "Seven Gentlemen" of the Yuan Dynasty are the three treasures of the Suzhou Museum. Among them, the Northern Song Dynasty Pearl Relic Treasure Building is also one of the treasures of the Nine Great Towns and Kingdoms, it is a container for storing relics, using crystal, agate, amber, pearl, sandalwood, gold, silver and other precious materials (Buddhism calls these seven treasures of the world) precious materials carefully made. The Northern Song Dynasty Pearl Relic Treasure Building has a history of nearly 1,000 years, its shape is exquisite, the craftsmanship is fine, even today, it is extremely difficult to reproduce.
At present, the new Suzhou Museum is responsible for the main function of the exhibition of the above-mentioned collections. The new museum is divided into three parts: west, middle and east according to the order of the tour. The west is the main exhibition area, with four permanent exhibition halls: "Wu Di Treasure", "Wu Pagoda National Treasure", "Wu Zhong Fengya" and "Wu Gate Calligraphy and Painting", and the special exhibition hall on the first floor holds modern art exhibitions from time to time. Out of the western exhibition area, you will come to the main courtyard in the middle, which is mainly to admire the new building and is also the place where tourists take the most photos. To the east, there are modern art galleries, educational facilities, a tea service area, and administrative offices, as well as access to the Chung Prince's Mansion. The Chung Prince's Mansion is the old Subo Pavilion, which is a traditional old house with a very different style from the new one, and the current Chung Wang's Mansion has been restored to its original appearance and is exhibited as an ancient building.
Suzhou Museum is located in the ancient city of Suzhou, adjacent to the Humble Administrator's Garden, Lion Forest and other famous attractions. Since May 18, 2008, the Suzhou Museum has been open to the public free of charge, and visitors can collect tickets on-site or make an appointment on the official website in advance. In case of holidays, there will be a queue at both the ticket collection window and the reservation window. In addition to the free guided tours provided by volunteers, there are also full-time explanations for group audiences, which are equipped with professional voice receiving equipment, and the cost of group explanations starts at 100 yuan. In addition, there is also an audio guide in the museum, which visitors can listen to by simply scanning the QR code. The museum service station provides free storage service for three hours, and a storage fee of 10 yuan per hour will be charged for overtime.
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Entrance fee: free
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday 09:00-17:00 (closed on Mondays, except national holidays; Last admission at 16:00)
