Shandong Museum

山东博物馆

Shandong’s provincial general museum. Eggshell black pottery, the Lu State Great Jade Bi, Dongping Han tomb murals and the Yinqueshan Han bamboo slips of *The Art of War* tell the story of the civilizations of Qi and Lu.

Shandong Museum is located east of the Jingshi Road and Yanshan Interchange in Lixia District. Its new building opened in 2010. It covers 83,000 square meters and holds more than 400,000 artifacts, making it the largest museum in Shandong Province.

Its treasures include: the eggshell black pottery high-stemmed cup from the Dawenkou and Longshan cultures, which is as thin as an eggshell and described as “the most exquisite craftsmanship of earth’s civilization four thousand years ago”; the Ya Chou axe, a Shang-dynasty bronze axe with a fierce human-face pattern; the Lu State Great Jade Bi, one of the largest jade bi discs from the Warring States period; the Song gui, a Western Zhou bronze vessel; the Yinqueshan Han tomb bamboo slips, in which *The Art of War* and *The Military Methods of Sun Bin* were unearthed together, settling a centuries-old debate over whether the two were one book; the murals from the Dongping Han tomb; the nine-tassel crown unearthed from the tomb of Zhu Tan, Prince of Lu of the Ming dynasty, the only surviving crown of a Ming-dynasty prince; and a Yuan-dynasty precursor of *Dream of the Red Chamber*……

Permanent exhibitions include the Shandong History and Culture Exhibition, the Han Dynasty Pictorial Art Exhibition, the Ming Dynasty Prince of Lu Exhibition, the Confucius Culture Exhibition, and Africa’s Great Wildlife Migration. The museum suits family visits.

Admission is free, but you must book in advance with real-name registration through the official “Shandong Museum” WeChat account. The museum is closed on Mondays (except public holidays), and last entry is at 4:00 p.m. Free guided tours run several times a day.

Getting there: Take Metro Line 2 to Olympic Sports Center Station (depending on your route), or several bus lines to Shandong Museum Station. From Quancheng Square, a taxi takes about 20 minutes.

Allow 2 to 3 hours for your visit. It sits in the same cultural district as the Shandong Art Museum and the Shandong Provincial Library, so you can visit them on the same trip.

Tips: Tripods and flash photography are not allowed inside. Booking slots are tight on weekends and during summer vacation, so book 3 to 7 days ahead.

Shandong Museum

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