Chengdu Museum

Chengdu Museum is a public municipal museum in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, People's Republic of China. Located on the west side of Tianfu Square in the city center, it is the largest comprehensive museum in Chengdu, with collections spanning from the Neolithic period to the Republican era. The institution traces its origins to a preparatory committee formed in 1958 and opened to the public in 1984, later moving to a purpose-built facility completed in 2016.

On 15 September 1958, the Chengdu Municipal Government established the Chengdu Topographical Museum Preparatory Committee at Daci Temple, acting under the direction of the Ministry of Culture to prepare for a municipal museum. The writer and deputy mayor Li Jieren served as director of the committee. This initiative culminated in the opening of Chengdu Museum in 1984, with its galleries housed at Daci Temple. In 2007, the architectural firms Sutherland Hussey Harris and Beijing-based Pansolution won first prize in an international competition to design a new city museum for Chengdu. Construction of the resulting building, known as Chengdu Museum New Hall, was completed in 2016 with a floor area of 65,000 square meters.

The museum holds nearly 200,000 objects, making it the largest comprehensive museum in Chengdu. Its collections cover a chronological range from the Neolithic period through the Republic of China. The six floors of exhibition space display historic artifacts across multiple media and disciplines. Particular strengths include traditional puppetry, shadow puppetry, and wood carving, with dedicated exhibitions presenting these performing and decorative arts.

The museum's holdings are distinguished by their breadth across Chinese history rather than by a single signature object. The collections encompass archaeological material from the Neolithic era onward, together with artifacts from successive dynasties and the Republican period. The puppetry and shadow puppet collections, displayed across multiple floors, represent significant holdings in traditional Sichuan performing arts. Wood carvings form another highlighted category within the permanent exhibitions.

The museum occupies a prominent position on the west side of Tianfu Square, Chengdu's central civic plaza. The current building, Chengdu Museum New Hall, was designed by Sutherland Hussey Harris in collaboration with Pansolution and completed in 2016. The structure provides 65,000 square meters of floor area. The site is adjacent to several major cultural institutions: the Jincheng Art Palace, Sichuan Art Museum, Sichuan Provincial Library, and Sichuan Science and Technology Museum.

Chengdu Museum is accessible via Tianfu Square Station on Chengdu Metro Line 1 and Line 2. The institution operates as a public municipal museum under the Chengdu Municipal Government. Its website is https://www.cdmuseum.com/.