The Shandong Museum is located in the eastern part of Jinan city, and it is one of the earliest established provincial comprehensive local museums in China. To date, the museum houses over 140,000 cultural relics and nearly 10,000 natural specimens, with a very rich display category. Ancient cultural relics unearthed or collected in the Shandong region are the museum’s collection features. Visiting the Shandong Museum allows for a systematic understanding of Shandong Province’s cultural history and is quite enlightening.
At the Shandong Museum, you can see a vast array of ancient ceramics, bronze wares, calligraphy, and ancient books, oracle bones, and Han Dynasty stone carvings, among various other cultural relics. Notably, the red pottery animal-shaped pot unearthed from the Dawenkou site, oracle bones from the Shang Dynasty, the large jade bi from the State of Lu during the Warring States period, bamboo slips of ‘The Art of War’ by Sun Tzu and ‘The Art of War’ by Sun Bin, and the murals from the Han tombs in Dongping are all treasures of the museum, very rare, and occasionally displayed.
The museum has three floors, with a service center on the first floor where you can rent a guide for 20 yuan per unit, offering explanations for many fine cultural relics. The first floor of the museum features two permanent exhibition areas: the Han Dynasty Portrait Art Exhibition and the Buddhist Sculpture Art Exhibition. These exhibitions showcase the architectural stones with carved portraits from the Han Dynasty’s underground tombs, cemetery temples, wooden watchtowers, and temple watchtowers unearthed in the Shandong region, as well as Buddhist sculptures, pagodas, steles, and inscriptions on sculptures.
The second floor hosts several permanent exhibitions including the Shandong Historical Culture Exhibition, Confucius Culture Exhibition, Museum Collection Painting Exhibition, Museum Collection Calligraphy Exhibition, and the Ming Dynasty Lu King Exhibition. The Shandong Historical Culture Exhibition displays cultural relics from prehistoric times to the Qing Dynasty, with a rich collection of relics from the Neolithic Age in Shandong, including pottery and jade artifacts unearthed from Dawenkou and Longshan cultural sites. The ‘Ming Dynasty Lu King Exhibition’ displays cultural relics from the tomb of Zhu Tan, the first Lu King of the Ming Dynasty, including clothing accessories, furniture, stationery, and musical instruments, which are a testament to the superb craftsmanship of the Ming Dynasty. The museum collection painting and calligraphy exhibitions showcase a large number of ancient calligraphy and painting art pieces left by literati and collectors in Shandong, mainly from the Ming and Qing dynasties, with many fine pieces.
The third floor mainly features two fixed exhibition areas: ‘Talking about Archaeology’ and ‘Archaeological Achievements Exhibition’. These areas display a wealth of graphic materials and miniature scenarios, vividly illustrating the development process of Shandong’s archaeological community and the basic knowledge of archaeology. In addition, there are several temporary exhibition halls on the first floor of the museum, which often host different themed exhibitions with rich content. Visitors can follow the museum’s official website for updates. The museum also has a souvenir shop and a café on the first floor, where the café offers light meals; there are water dispensers on each floor providing hot water. If you feel tired during the visit, there are many rest seats available within the museum.
Opening hours: Open from Tuesday to Sunday throughout the year, from 09:00 to 17:00. Closed all day on Mondays throughout the year. Open from 09:00 to 17:00 on New Year’s Day, Spring Festival, Tomb Sweeping Day, Labor Day, Dragon Boat Festival, and National Day.
Luggage storage: Reference price: Free. Location: Storage area. Large items can be stored. The museum is not responsible for the loss of stored items due to failure to collect them on time. When collecting stored packages, collect them with the storage number. Please keep the storage number properly. The museum is not responsible for the misappropriation of stored items due to the loss of the storage number. When collecting packages, please return the storage number and collect the corresponding items. Please carefully check the stored items. After leaving the counter, the museum is not responsible.
Scenic area interpretation: The interpretation services of Shandong Museum include manual interpretation services and multimedia voice-guided tour services. Manual interpretation services can provide interpretations in Chinese and English. Multimedia voice-guided tour services can provide four languages: Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean to meet the needs of different visitors.
Stroller rental: Reference price: Free. Location: Information desk on the first floor. For audiences who need to borrow free baby strollers, please go to the information desk on the first floor to handle it.
Wheelchair rental: Reference price: Free. Location: Information desk on the first floor. For audiences who need to borrow wheelchairs, please go to the information desk on the first floor to handle it.
