Seven Most Beautiful Art Museums in China

Yu Qingcheng Gallery, Tianjin 

(photograph: Arch20.com, 

courtesy of Zhanghua Architects)

1. Tree Art Museum, Beijing

As a landmark structure in renowned art village Songzhuang (a small town on the outskirts of Beijing), Tree Art Museum lures visitors in with a courtyard with a pool. Looking out of the French windows of the two-story structure, the reflections of the blue sky on the pool help people filter their minds and enjoy a moment of peace and tranquility.
Hours of operation: 10:00 am – 5:00 pm (closed on Mondays)
Address: East Area of Xiaobao village, Songzhuang, Tongzhou district, Beijing.

2. M Woods Museum, Beijing

The M Woods Museum, located in Beijing’s cultural hub 798 Art Zone, has gained popularity among young Chinese people over the past year. The contemporary art museum attracted some 2,000 visitors at the opening party with a theme exhibition of U.S. art icon Andy Warhol in 2016. M Woods is an independent, not-for-profit art museum founded in 2014 by collectors Lin Han and Lei Wanying, and co-founded by Huang Xufu. It’s built in a former munitions factory, with renovations using translucent materials. M Woods is open to the public with a permanent collection based on the founders’ private collection of international art.
Hours of operation: 10:30 am – 6:00 pm (closed on Mondays)
Address: D-06, 798 Art Zone, 2 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang district, Beijing.

3. Muxin Art Museum, Zhejiang

The Muxin Art Museum, located in East China’s ancient water town of Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, is built in memory of late Chinese artist, writer and poet Mu Xin, one of the most popular writers among young readers today. The pond-side modern structure was designed by a group of artists led by Hiroshi Okamoto – a student of renowned Chinese-American architect Ieoh Ming Pei.
Hours of operation: 9:00 am -5:00 pm (closed on Mondays)
Address: 1508 Xizha scenic spot of Wuzhen, Tongxiang, Zhejiang province.

4. Han Meilin Art Museum, Yinchuan

When renowned Chinese artist Han Meilin first visited Helan Mountain in Northwest China’s Ningxia Hui autonomous region in the 1980s, he was struck by the rock paintings. He later paid more visits and has used many of the mysterious patterns from there in his artworks. In 2010, Han donated more than 1,000 pieces of his works to the municipal government of Yinchuan, prompting the Han Meilin Art Museum to be built in the Helan Mountain Rock Art Heritage Park.
Hours of operation: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm (closed on Mondays)
Address: Helan Rock Painting Heritage Park, Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui autonomous region

5. Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing

The Sifang Art Museum has been hailed by many as one of the best private art museums in China, nestled in mountains in suburban Nanjing, East China’s Jiangsu province. The museum also features a lake zone which is open for public visits.
Hours of operation: 10:00 am – 5:00 pm (closed on Mondays and Tuesdays)
Address: 9 Zhenqi Road, Pukou district, Nanjing, Jiangsu province.

6. Yu Qingcheng Gallery, Tianjin

Yu Qingcheng is a sculpture artist from North China’s Tianjin, famous for his clay figures depicting lives of people in rural China. The Yu Qingcheng Gallery stands in mountains of Jinxian county. Designed by the Architectural Design and Research Institute of Tianjin University, the gallery features a distinguishing “manifold” structure. From first to the last, different shapes of the buildings form a continuous flowing and changing physical space.
Hours of operation: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm (closed on Mondays)
Address: Inside the Panshan Mountain Scenic Spot in Tianjin

7. Gongwang Art Museum, Hangzhou

The Gongwang Art Museum is one of the most recent designs of famed Chinese architect Wang Shu, who became the first Chinese to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2012. The museum was built along rivers in the Fuchun Mountains in East China’s Fuyang, Hangzhou city, where legendary painter Huang Gongwang (1269 -1354), of the Yuan Dynasty, lived and finished his masterpiece scroll painting Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains. Lines of the museum’s roofs echo the ridges of mountains in the back, forming a harmonious picture that seems to recreate the beauty of the ancient scroll painting.
Hours of operation: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm (closed on Mondays)
Address: 159 Riverside West Avenue, Fuchun, Fuyang district, Hangzhou city, Zhejiang province.