Beijing's best museums about technology

Unleash your inner engineer at Beijing's best machinery museums

In its august 5,000 years of history, the Chinese nation can lay claim to some pretty impressive technological achievements. Beijing can also lay claim to some pretty impressive museums celebrating said achievements, so get your boots on to learn about all things technological.

Beijing Auto Museum

One of the more architecturally impressive museums in the capital, this is a futuristic, curved metal complex, while inside, sleek staircases spiral up five floors in a vast atrium. You’re here for the cars though, and fortunately exhibits themselves are also of a good standard.

The first floor is an ode to Communist car craft, with beautiful Mao-era saloons sat alongside Soviet vintage, including Red Flags, Warsaws and Volgas, while further up, classics of the Western canon from Bugatti, Ferrari and Jaguar park beside camper vans, old-school Cadillacs and elegant ’30s Fords. The upper floors house a variety of simulators and driving experiences, though it must be said that some do feel a little dated. They also cost an additional fee (from 20RMB).

Don’t miss One of Karl Benz’s earliest automobiles. That, or the Chinese-style knock-off Batmobile – something for everyone.

Estimated time 1.5 hours

English provisions Most exhibited are accompanied by well-translated, if short, descriptions.

China Tank Museum

For a place that glorifies heavy artillery, there is something surprisingly peaceful about the Tank Museum, owing to its setting near the surrounding Yanshan Mountains. Skip the sparse entrance building and stroll around the expansive courtyard with its 40-plus tanks – all with English-language signage. Most are Chinese-designed and were used in combat during the Korean and Vietnam wars. It’s definitely worth a visit, whether you love nothing more than a good tank or you’re just looking for some fresh air.

Don’t miss The central courtyard, filled with tanks a-plenty.

Estimated time Two hours.

English provisions Signage is good and fairly comprehensive.

Chinese Aviation Museum

All the way in Changping district, the Chinese Aviation Museum – the largest in Asia – features displays of 300 aircraft and thousands of missiles, guns and military equipment. Outside are countless Chinese- and Soviet-made fighter jets (including the PLA’s first, the F-6) and bombers. Make your way around these lesser-known, visually striking flying machines – peculiar antiques of past generations – as rousing military music is pumped out, eerily, around the near-abandoned compound. The hangar itself (20RMB) is a former military base; a giant cave, excavated in the surrounding Mangshan mountains. More relics are within, including a replica of the Red Army’s first plane – The Lenin – and jets used in the Korean War. Unpleasantly, some of these aircraft have info boards that name the USAF pilots shot down by each plane.

Don’t miss Board one of Mao’s propeller planes (10RMB) to peer in at the cockpit and austere wooden bed in his private cabin.

Estimated time Three hours.

English provisions Most info boards have basic English headers and brief descriptions.

China Railway Museum Dongjiao branch

Wandering among the 40-odd hulking steam engines at the China Railway Museum, one almost expects them to burst into life at any second. It’s like a graveyard for these huge, ever-impressive locomotives. Perhaps the most stunning specimen on display is the famous Mao Zedong train, the front of which bears his image on a large iron badge, like Tiananmen Gate on wheels. Pretend you’re a train conductor in the few locomotives that can be explored from the inside; it’s a photo-op no-brainer. Even better: go for a visit during the week and 50 29788 50 14987 0 0 3436 0 0:00:08 0:00:04 0:00:04 3435you’ll practically have the whole place to yourself. All aboard!

Don't miss: The Mao Zedong train.

Estimated time: One hour.

English provisions English descriptions are good throughout.

Beijing Daqi Museum for Radios and Movie Projectors

Plonked in a lonely building in faraway Tongzhou district, the eerie silence and ‘is it actually open?’ feeling on entering belie what turns out to be one of Beijing’s most surprisingly impressive museums. The name also hides the truth slightly, as it’s not just radios and projectors on show here, but thousands of pieces of old machinery, including reel-to-reel filming equipment, stereos, gramophones, mobile phones, typewriters, cameras and more, while walls are clad in kitschy old movie posters, magazines and adverts. The range of interactive exhibits were mostly inactive on our visit, but in any case, this is a retro-lovers dream, and worth the long trek out of the city.

Don’t miss The extensive catalogue of bricky Nokia phones on the third floor.

Estimated time 90 minutes.

English provisions Model names and exhibit intros are in English.

Beijing Waterworks Museum

Moisture is the essence of water, and water is the essence of one of Beijing’s most offbeat museum experiences. Formerly known, nay, famed as the Beijing Museum of Tap Water (in a city not exactly famed for the stuff), this place has in recent years moved home and upgraded, to become the more appropriately named Waterworks Museum. The museum shows off the history of the city’s underground piping systems and regional drought in a ritzier fashion than humankind has ever seen, with enough models, photos, diagrams, water meters and other instruments to bring out the latent civil engineer in anyone.

Don’t miss The entire wall dedicated to images of Xi Jinping inspecting Beijing tap water samples. Guessing that he didn’t drink it, though.

Estimated time One hour.

English provisions All in Chinese, except for a few headers.

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