The Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution, or China People's Revolution Military Museum (Chinese: 中国人民革命军事博物馆) is a museum located in Beijing, China immediately west of central Beijing in Haidian District. It displays restored military equipment from the history of the People's Liberation Army, up to and including modern-day machinery.
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The museum began construction in October 1958 and completed in 1960.
The museum's four floors include ten halls, the largest of which is the Hall of Weapons. The Hall's extensive holdings of antiquated weaponry showcase domestic and foreign weapons, including blades, small arms, artillery, tanks, armored personnel carriers, anti-air weaponry, jet fighters, rockets and rocket launchers, and cruise missiles. Foreign weapons include: Soviet tanks purchased or donated during the 1950s and 1960s, American weaponry captured from the KMT during the Chinese Civil War and from UN forces during the Korean War, and Japanese weaponry captured during the Sino-Japanese War. In addition, the weapons hall displays equipment from China's space program, satellites and an orbital capsule with two seats.
With two exceptions, other halls are largely historical exhibits, combining plaster sculptures, maps and paintings, historical relics, movies, and plaques with text (in Chinese, with selected plaques translated into English). The other nine halls include the Hall of the Agrarian Revolutionary War (the 1927-1937 confrontation between the Chinese Communist Party with associated revolutionary forces, and the ruling KMT), the Hall of the War to Resist Japanese Aggression (the 1937-1947 Second Sino-Japanese War), Hall of the War of Liberation of China (the 1945-1949 Chinese Civil War), Hall of Ancient Wars (internal and external wars during the 4,000 years before the Qing dynasty), Hall of Modern Wars (internal and external wars between 1840 and 1949), Hall of National Defense and Army Building (modern military achievements and development of self-defense since 1949), Hall of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (Chinese involvement in the Korean War, 1951-1953), the Hall of Presents (gifts to the Chinese military or state by foreign militaries or states), and Hall of Cheng Yunxian's Sculptural Arts (plaster reproductions of sculptures of world leaders, historical figures, and scientists by Cheng Yunxian).
Currently there is no cost to enter the museum, as it is set up as a public service. The museum is accessible by Line 1 of the Beijing Subway at the Military Museum Station and City Bus Routes 1, 4, 21, 65, 68, 205, 308, 320, 337, 617, 728, and 802.
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