The China Railway Museum (simplified Chinese: 中国铁道博物馆; traditional Chinese: 中國鐵道博物館; pinyin: Zhōngguó Tiědào Bówùguǎn) is a Chinese museum preserving locomotives that have operated on the railways of the People's Republic of China. The museum offers a total exhibition space of 16500m² and 8 exhibition tracks.
The museum is located in Chaoyang District of Beijing City, some 15 km northeast of downtown Beijing, inside the circular test track that is part of the China National Railway Test Centre. It also has a branch in downtown Beijing, in the former Zhengyangmen East Railway Station near Tian'anmen Square.
History
The China Railway Museum has its origins in the 1950s when the Ministry of Railways (MOR) created a temporary exhibit for the Economic Achievements Exhibition in Beijing. This exhibition, which was held by the National Economic Development Committee, celebrated the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the People's Republic of China.
The MOR then founded the Central Technical Library in 1958 to promote scientific and technological advancements and support the growth of the Chinese railway industry. This institution subsequently became the MOR Exhibition Group, then the MOR Exhibition Department, and finally the MOR Science and Technology Museum.
On 2 November 2002, the MOR Science and Technology Museum's locomotive exhibition hall was opened to the public and was officially renamed the China Railway Museum on 1 September 2003.
The museum expanded further in October 2009 when the Beijing Railway Museum was integrated into the China Railway Museum.[1]
Downtown branch
Zhengyangmen East Railway Station, now a branch of the museum
The Beijing Railway Museum (Chinese: 北京铁路博物馆; pinyin: Běijīng Tiělù Bówùguǎn) was opened in 2008 in a building which includes the clock-tower of the former Zhengyangmen East Railway Station of the Jingfeng Railway (Chinese: 京奉铁路正阳门东车站; pinyin: Jīngfèng Tiělù Zhèngyáng Mén Dōng Chēzhàn), just southeast of the Tian'anmen Square. The rest of the building is entirely new-build, dating from the 1979 construction of Beijing Subway Line 4, which required the rest of the old station to be demolished. The historic facade was then reconstructed, in mirror-image, on the opposite (right hand) side of the clock tower. In October 2009, Beijing Railway Museum was renamed to the Zhengyangmen Branch (正阳门馆) of the China Railway Museum. This part of the museum contains only one full size historic locomotive - an 0-6-0 tank engine from the 19th century. The rest of the displays comprise models,[2] maps (some in 3D relief), photographs,[3] documents and displays about the development of railways in China, including architectural models of six new stations on the CRH China Railway High-speed system. Also on display is a CRH3 cab simulator.
