Cultural Palace of Nationalities, Cultural center in Xicheng District, China

The Cultural Palace of Nationalities is a 13-story building in Beijing's Xicheng District, organized around a central exhibition hall with east and west wings. The wings house a museum, an art gallery, a library, a theater, and a guesthouse, all managed by the State Ethnic Affairs Commission.

The palace was built in 1959 as one of Beijing's Ten Great Buildings, intended from the start to present the ethnic diversity of the People's Republic of China. It was the first of fifty-five museums to be officially registered in the city at that time.

The name comes from the building's role as a stage for China's ethnic minorities. The entrance bears the characters "unity" and "progress", a phrase Mao Zedong gave the Tibetan delegation in 1955 as a farewell message. The museum's core display, launched in 1994, is a three-part series on costumes, musical instruments and crafts.

The complex is entered from Fuxingmennei Dajie, with the main tower set back behind a forecourt and the exhibition halls reached through the central section; the theatre and library occupy separate wings. The museum's five halls cover 3,780 square metres, so allow time to cross between them.

The building's exterior features white walls topped with peacock-blue glazed roof tiles, a combination rarely seen in Beijing. Above the entrance, Chinese characters display concepts like solidarity and progress, making the facade a direct record of the ideas that shaped the building's founding era.