Yunnan Provincial Museum, Provincial museum in Kunming, China

The Yunnan Provincial Museum opened its new building at 6393 Guangfu Road in Guandu District on May 18, 2015. Its rust-red paneled facade, inspired by the 'one seal' courtyard house and the weathered stone of the Stone Forest, encloses three floors and 60,000 square meters. Inside, six permanent halls trace Yunnan from prehistory through the Bronze Age, Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms, and the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.

A preparatory committee was approved on 23 August 1951, and the museum was formally established in spring 1959. In 1961, on Zhou Enlai's suggestion, a Kunming military museum building under construction on Wuyi Road was transferred to it, and the exhibition halls moved there in November 1965. In 1969 it was merged into the Yunnan Provincial Exhibition Hall and restored as a museum in August 1972. The new building on the left bank of the Baoxiang River in Guandu District was founded on 31 December 2008 and opened on 18 May 2015.

The museum's six permanent galleries follow Yunnan's history from prehistory through the Bronze Age Dian kingdom, the Nanzhao and Dali states, the Yuan, Ming and Qing periods, and the modern era. Its collection of 230,746 items (14,122 of them graded as precious relics) centres on the Dian bronze culture excavated at Shizhaishan and Lijiashan near Lake Dian.

The new museum stands at No. 6393 Guangfu Road in Guandu District, on the left bank of the Baoxiang River; the 1959 building on Wuyi Road in Wuhua District is the old site. It opens Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00 to 17:00, and closes on Mondays except public holidays. Entry is free with a valid ID used to collect a ticket.

Among the holdings are several hundred paintings, calligraphy works and other objects that belonged to Gao Yunhuai, a former Nationalist military officer; Red Guards confiscated them in 1966, at the start of the Cultural Revolution. They later entered the museum's collection.