Located in Jilin City, one of the major urban centers of Jilin Province, the Jilin City Museum stands out as a comprehensive local museum that brings together natural sciences, human history, and art under a single institutional framework. Combining exhibition, collection and preservation, scientific research, and public education, the museum currently holds the status of a “National First-Class Museum” and is also designated as a national 4A-level tourist attraction. Housing a collection of more than 20,000 cultural relics, the institution serves as one of the principal repositories of Jilin’s cultural memory at both academic and societal levels.
The museum’s institutional history dates back to December 25, 1962. A major turning point came in 1990, when it opened to the public together with the newly constructed Jilin Meteorite Museum, significantly shaping its scientific profile. In 1996, the museum was rebuilt on its original site, gaining a physical infrastructure aligned with contemporary museological standards. Notably, the Jilin Meteorite Museum remains the only publicly accessible meteorite-themed museum in China and attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.
Although data on the total building and exhibition areas vary across different periods, the museum today operates within a large-scale complex encompassing tens of thousands of square meters. Within this space, eight permanent exhibitions are on display. The “Jilin Meteorite Shower Exhibition” focuses on meteorite structures and impact processes, while the “Jilin City History Exhibition” presents the city’s historical and cultural identity. The “Three Heroes of Jilin Exhibition Hall” highlights the political and cultural contributions of Cheng Duolu, Song Xiaolian, and Xu Nailin. The Jin Yian Art Gallery and the Liu Naizhong Art Gallery showcase outstanding works of contemporary Chinese calligraphy and seal carving. Meanwhile, the Songhua Lake Langmu Art Gallery presents over a hundred pieces of root wood art, offering a distinctive interpretation of the relationship between nature and aesthetics.
In addition to its permanent exhibitions, the Jilin City Museum organizes more than ten temporary and thematic exhibitions each year, employing innovative display designs and dynamically presenting its valuable collections to the public. In this respect, the museum functions not merely as a guardian of the past, but as a living center of cultural and scientific knowledge production, dissemination, and social education.
