[2025 Lanzhou Attraction] Travel Guide for Gansu Provincial Museum (Updated Jun)

The Gansu Provincial Museum is located in Qilihe District, Lanzhou City. It houses many precious cultural relics and treasures. Its splendour and richness are among the best in the country's museums. It is one of the landmark buildings for visiting Lanzhou City. Since Gansu is located on the Silk Road and is also the border between the Han and Tibetan regions, a large number of cultural relics that reflect the culture of the Western Regions, the Central Plains, and the Tibetan region have been unearthed and displayed, making the cultural relics in the museum rich and colorful and unique, and very worth visiting. The bronze statue of a horse stepping on a flying swallow and the bricks with pictures of postmen in the museum are famous precious national treasures that must not be missed when visiting here. The museum has three floors, divided into several permanent exhibition halls with themes of the Silk Road Civilization Exhibition, Gansu Buddhist Art Exhibition, Gansu Painted Pottery Exhibition, Paleontology Exhibition, and Red Gansu. Among them, the three themes of the Silk Road, Buddhism, and Painted Pottery are more exciting, and you can visit them according to your interests. There is also a temporary exhibition hall on the first floor, which often holds temporary exhibitions of cultural relics and artworks. There are many exhibits in the museum, and it usually takes nearly half a day to visit them in a hurry. The Silk Road Civilization Exhibition is located on the second floor and is the core exhibition of the Gansu Provincial Museum. The famous bronze horse statue of "Horse Stepping on Flying Swallow" is displayed here. The shape of this bronze statue is now a symbol of Chinese tourism. The bronze statue can stand firmly with only one foot on the ground, showing the superb skills of ancient casting. The "Horse Stepping on Flying Swallow" is also the treasure of the whole museum. The famous brick with the picture of the postman is also here. The picture of the postman painted on it is now the symbol of China's postal industry. In addition to these two national treasures, there are many precious cultural relics on the ancient Silk Road in the museum, including artifacts of Central Plains culture, treasures left by the Western Regions and even European civilizations that arrived here via the Silk Road in ancient times, and the culture left by Islam in ancient China, which is unique. In some areas, the lifestyles and customs of the ancient Western Regions countries are restored through sand tables and other methods, which are very ethnic and eye-opening. The Gansu Buddhist Art Exhibition is located on the third floor and is also an important exhibition in the museum. There are caves copied from Mogao Grottoes and Maijishan Grottoes, huge white pagodas and prayer wheels of Tibetan Buddhism, etc. Walking into the exhibition hall is like being in a magnificent and huge temple. The Buddha statues and instruments displayed in the museum are also very exquisite. There are both historical relics of Han Buddhism and precious religious objects of Tibetan Buddhism. Such a fusion can only be seen in a Han-Tibetan fusion area like Gansu, which is very distinctive. The Gansu Painted Pottery Exhibition is also on the third floor. As soon as you enter the exhibition hall, you seem to be in an ancient tribe. The ancient thatched houses and the working tribesmen are all copied. The portraits in the exhibition hall are very realistic, and you will have the illusion that they are real people when you get close to them. The museum displays many pottery from the Majiayao culture, Qijia culture, Yangshao culture, etc., which are four or five thousand years old. Although they were thousands of years ago, the pottery at that time was already very exquisite, with various beautiful patterns and unique shapes, which can be visited one by one. The paleontology theme exhibition is divided into two exhibition halls. The second floor is the fossil exhibition, which displays fossils of ancient creatures such as dinosaurs. The most famous one is the Yellow River ancient elephant fossil, which is the largest elephant fossil discovered in China. The third floor is the model exhibition of ancient elephants and dinosaurs. Walking into the exhibition hall seems to be in the dinosaur world, and children will like it more. The Red Gansu Theme Exhibition Hall on the second floor displays revolutionary relics from the Nanliang Base and the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region during the revolutionary period. You can go and see them. There is a cafe on the second floor of the museum. The price is the same as that of ordinary cafes outside. If you are tired, you can go in and have a cup of coffee and take a break. There are irregular volunteers in the museum to provide Guide services for everyone, but you may not meet them. You need to make an appointment by phone in advance to ask for a special person to Guide. The price varies from about 100 to 300 yuan depending on the number of people and the language. You can also connect to the wireless network in the museum through your mobile phone and listen to the Audio Guide by scanning the QR code of the cultural relics. In addition, there are Complimentary wheelchair rental and luggage storage services in the museum. For details, please see the official website.