I visited the museum/park in August 2009 and loved it from the minute I stepped through the entrance. The park is MASSIVE and you’d probably need more than a day here to fully appreciate all that it has to offer.
I only had about 2.5 hours there, so I had to be choosy and only see the exhibits that sounded the most interesting. The selling point for this place is that there are 56 different museums, one representing each of the 56 ethnic groups that are officially recognized in China. To my delight, it wasn’t so much a “museum” as it was just an open air display of local housing, villages, and shops.
Some of the ‘museums’ were very small and only displayed a common looking house of the ethnic group, but some ‘museums’ were much more elaborate – not only displaying homes, but also shops, and common buildings that exist in their villages.
The park is a bit of a maze, but thankfully it is very well marked. All signs were in both English and Chinese, (and often the language of the ethnic group as well). Because of the massive size and the way it’s set up, it’s very easy to walk by an entrance of a museum and not know it.
All in all, this was one of my favorite attractions in Beijing. It was great to learn about the different ethnic groups that all co-exist inside China.
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