Museums in the stamps

Designed by the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design, the Military Museum of the Chinese People’s Revolution was completed on August 16, 1959 and opened on August 1, 1960. The Ministry of Post and Telecommunication specially issued stamps for the museum respectively with the postages of eight cents and ten cents.

With the enhancement of comprehensive national strength, China has built and reconstructed a series of museums after the reform and open policy (began in 1978) to meet the demand of knowledge for the public. The State Post Bureau of the People’s Republic of China issued 5 stamps as a set with the theme of the construction of museums on November 9, 2002. Here are the five stamps:

The Stamp of Shaanxi History Museum with the postage of 80 cents

The Shaanxi History Museum is situated on Yan Ta Road in Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province. It is a national-level modernized large-scale museum, and a grand imitation of traditional Tang dynasty buildings. Covering an area of 65,000 square meters, with a building area of 60,000 square meters, the museum gathers the cultural quintessence in Shaanxi, and has represented the evolution of Chinese civilization by combining the Chinese ancient palace and courtyard architectural style together.

The museum has collected 370,000 unearthed historical relics treasures in Shaanxi, and visitors can appreciate the treasures made from prehistory, Zhou to Ming and Qing Dynasties which systematically shows the Shaanxi history from 1,150,000 years before to A.D.1840. Exhibited in the main exhibition hall are 2,700 works of art, with an exhibition line that extends 2,300 meters. The exhibition space is divided into an introductory hall, permanent exhibitions, special exhibitions, and temporary exhibitions, as well as one that has been named the National Painting Hall.

The Stamp of Shanghai Museum with the postage of 80 cents

As a museum of ancient Chinese art, Shanghai Museum possesses a collection of 120,000 precious works of art. Its rich and high-quality collection of ancient Chinese bronze, ceramics, painting and calligraphy is specially celebrated in the world.

Founded and first open to the public in the building previously of the horseracing club at 325 W. Nanjing Road in 1952 and then moved into the former Zhonghui Building at 16 S. Henan Road in 1959, the museum developed very quickly in aspects of acquisition, conservation, research, exhibition, education and cultural exchanges with other institutes. In 1992, the Shanghai municipal government allocated to the Museum a piece of land at the very center of the city, the People's Square, as its new site. The whole construction took three years, from August 1993 to its inauguration on October 12th, 1996. The 29.5 meters high new building has a construction space of 39,200 square meters.

Its unique architectural form of a round top with a square base, symbolizing the ancient Chinese philosophy that the square earth is under the round sky, is a distinguished architectural combination of traditional feature and modern spirit. The present Shanghai Museum has eleven galleries and three special temporary exhibition halls. It extends warm welcome to the visitors from all over the world.

The Stamp of Henan Museum with the postage of 80 cents

Henan Museum, located in Zhengzhou, is a newly-built modern history and art museum. It opened to the public on May 1, 1998. Henan Museum occupies an area of more than 100,000 square meters, with a total floor space of 78,000 square meters. At present the museum has a collection of more than 130,000 pieces of cultural relics treasures, of which more than 5,000 pieces are treasures of the first and second grades. Among them, the prehistoric cultural relics, bronze vessels of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and pottery and porcelain wares of the various dynasties in Chinese history possess most distinguishing features. Inside the museum, there are basic exhibition halls, specialized exhibition halls and provisional exhibition halls. For the first batch of exhibitions, two basic displays and six specialized displays are offered. They are rich in contents, presenting a spectacular sight to visitors.