The Shantou Port Opening Culture Exhibition Hall is located at Building 1, Yongping Road, Jinping District, Shantou City, facing the Chao Customs Clock Tower, a witness to the opening of Shantou Port, across the street. The exhibition hall, facing northeast and southwest, is a three-story European-style building. It serves as a cultural business card for the city, showcasing the development of Shantou since its opening on January 1, 1860. The exhibition layout reflects the historical context of Shantou’s opening, its significance, and the prosperity it brought.
There are three sets of bronze-colored sculptures at the steps in front of the Shantou Port Opening Culture Exhibition Hall. Together with the entire building, they project a blend of Chinese and Western cultural elements onto the figures. The first floor of the exhibition hall is a multifunctional display hall, displaying materials and images since the opening of Shantou Port. The entrance of the hall is antique and elegant, featuring a huge mural of port culture with the three red characters ‘Shantou Port’ shining brightly. The entire cultural mural, made of wall bricks, is 4.8 meters high and 4.2 meters wide, showing the evolution of Shantou’s politics, economy, and culture over 150 years since the port’s opening, with representative significant events, architecture, characters, and artifacts all vividly presented. The major people and events in the history of the port’s opening are all condensed under this giant mural. On the right side of the entrance on the first floor, a cartoonized ‘Tuo Tu’ (a local nickname for Shantou) as the mascot of the exhibition hall greets visitors from all directions – Shantou is also known as ‘Tuo Island’. The first floor is positioned as a multifunctional display hall, collecting many famous calligraphic works and paintings, and showcasing the current style of Jinping District, the birthplace of port culture in Shantou City. The second floor exhibition hall of the Shantou Port Opening Culture Exhibition Hall is the highlight of the entire port culture exhibition. The exhibition wall is an old photo of Shantou’s opening, inscribed by the famous Lingdong artist Guo Mangyuan with the words ‘Let history tell the present – Shantou Port Symphony’. The entire exhibition hall revolves around this theme, slowly unfolding the changes in Shantou’s 150-year history of port opening through nine preludes. Starting with ‘Big Waves Washing Sand’, it shows the history of Shantou’s origin, then comprehensively displays the economic takeoff of Shantou after the opening until the brilliant period of the 1930s, the germination and rise of national industry, and the period from 1939 to 1945 when Shantou was filled with famous people and scholars. In addition, on the left side of the exhibition hall, there is a bird’s-eye view sand table of Shantou Port based on the 1931 Shantou map. Through the exhibition hall, one can learn about the 30 firsts created by Shantou’s port opening. The second floor exhibition hall also collects more than 100 precious cultural relics donated by citizens and social enthusiasts, which will be displayed as a permanent port cultural relics exhibition hall. There are many business licenses before Shantou’s liberation, old stocks, overseas Chinese letters, and old photos from the early period of liberation, as well as a medicine grinding bowl reflecting the opening of Shantou’s潮汕 pharmaceutical industry and a national antique iron shell hand-cranked telephone reflecting the origin of Shantou’s civilian telephone.In addition, some books donated by Professor Lin Lunlun, a famous linguistics expert, Chaoshan folklore expert and president of Hanshan Normal University, include a precious ‘Teochew Bible’. This ‘Teochew Bible’ was copied by the donor in the library of Harvard University in the United States. The donor took pictures of each page and sent it to the Treaty Port Cultural Exhibition Hall for reproduction. The peculiarity of this ‘Teochew Bible’ lies in annotating Teochew sounds with Roman characters to facilitate communication between missionaries and Chaoshan believers at that time. The third floor of Shantou Treaty Port Cultural Exhibition Hall is used as an exhibition and demonstration hall for Chaoshan culture, displaying Chaoshan musical instruments. Cultural salon activities are held irregularly. Opening hours: Open from 09:00 to 17:00 from Tuesday to Sunday throughout the year; closed all day on Monday throughout the year; open from 09:00 to 17:30 throughout the year. Closed on Mondays (except legal holidays). The opening hours on legal holidays are from 9:00 to 17:30 (no admission after 17:00). Must-see tips: On November 26, 2014, it was learned through telephone consultation that the exhibition hall and surrounding roads are currently under renovation, resulting in the inability to visit the first floor. Groups can make reservations in advance. Around New Year’s Day, individual tourists can be received. For specific matters, please consult the museum by telephone.
