Yangguan Museum

Yangguan Museum is located on a sloped terrace 800 meters north of the Yangguan Beacon Tower (Dundun Mountain Beacon Tower) in the Han Dynasty in Yangguan Scenic Area. It is a major part of the Yangguan Scenic Area. It began to be planned at the end of 1999, started construction in April 2001, and was completed and opened on August 28, 2003. It covers an area of ​​100,000 square meters and a construction area of ​​more than 20,000 square meters. The overall building complex is a Han Dynasty castle-style building complex, which is simple and majestic. The west, north and east sides are built with walls, forming a protective posture with the historical relics in the south. The building complex in the museum faces the Yangguan (Dundun Mountain) Beacon Tower and the Altun Snow Mountain from a distance. The natural landscape and the cultural landscape are integrated and complement each other. The buildings in the museum are roughly symmetrically distributed from west to east along the east-west central axis. They consist of major buildings such as the Yangguan main gate tower and city wall, the Liangguan Hansai Hall, the Silk Road Hall, the Hanque Archway, the Yangguan Duwei Mansion, the imitation Han Yangguan City, the Yangguan Research Institute, a street of imitation Han residential houses, the Research and Study Center, as well as cultural landscapes such as the bronze statue of Zhang Qian, the statue of Wang Wei, and the Silk Road Friendship Map. It integrates multiple functions such as museums, exhibitions, education, cultural protection, and tourism. It is a new type of private site museum based on historical relics and combining museums and gardens.

Yangguan Museum aims to "explore ancient culture and build new culture". In order to meet the objective needs of Dunhuang tourism, especially the protection and development of the two passes (Yangguan and Yumenguan) Great Wall, it is based on the scattered historical relics and rich and profound cultural heritage in the two passes Great Wall area, especially the Yangguan area, and applies new concepts and new thinking to develop. It uses sculptures, murals, architecture, exhibitions, environment and other artistic means to show the historical features and cultural characteristics of the Silk Road, the two passes Great Wall and Northwest China, and reveal its rich historical and cultural connotations, so as to enhance people's understanding of the Silk Road culture, Dunhuang culture, especially the military culture of the two passes Great Wall and the ethnic culture of the frontier. Its construction adheres to the principle of scientific protection as the main and reasonable use as the secondary. It not only has the function of protecting ancient culture and developing tourism, but also is a carrier for inheriting and carrying forward Dunhuang culture.

Yangguan Museum currently has nearly 4,000 cultural relics, including 21 first-class cultural relics, 142 second-class cultural relics, and 487 third-class cultural relics. The categories include stoneware, jadeware, pottery, gold and silverware, bronzeware, ironware, woodware, wool, linen and silk fabrics, etc. The contents involve various aspects of production, life, military, culture, religion, etc., and have high historical and academic value.

Since the opening of Yangguan Museum, through planning and demonstration, rational development, it has continuously strengthened infrastructure construction, vigorously developed tourist souvenirs and participatory tourism projects with regional cultural characteristics, and continuously improved service quality. It has not only strengthened the protection and research of cultural relics, but also promoted the transformation of cultural resources into cultural productivity, achieved good economic and social benefits, and made positive contributions to the inheritance and promotion of Dunhuang culture, the promotion of regional economic and social development, and the prosperity of local cultural undertakings.