Guanfu Museum, Art museum in Dashanzi, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China.
The Guanfu Museum is an art museum in Beijing devoted to Chinese artistic works and objects. The collection includes ceramics, calligraphy, painting, and other traditional art forms displayed throughout dedicated gallery spaces.
Ma Weidu founded the museum as the Guanfu Classical Art Museum; it was approved by the Beijing Cultural Relics Bureau on 30 October 1996, one of the first four private museums licensed in the PRC, and opened to the public on 18 January 1997. It moved several times, from Liulichang Street to Nanxiaojie Street and in 2004 to Dashanzi, and adopted a council system in 2004. It was renamed Guanfu Museum in 2007.
The name Guanfu comes from chapter 16 of Laozi's Daodejing: "all things rise together, I watch their return." The museum keeps a reconstructed scholar's studio, Song Xi Cao Tang, with the ancient hundred-treasures inlay technique shown in its jade, lacquer and precious-wood pieces. Ming furniture is displayed for its plain lines, Qing pieces for dense carving.
The museum is at 18 Jinnan Road, Zhangwanfen, Dashanzi, Chaoyang District, in the building with the curved glass front and red-tiled roof. Group and English tours run daily; book at least a day ahead. The museum also authenticates ceramics and wood furniture by prior appointment, issuing certificates for a fee but no financial valuations.
The museum's name comes from a line in Laozi's Daodejing, chapter 16: "all things flourish, and each returns to its root." Ma Weidu reads it as looking again and again to reach the essence of things. The building in Dashanzi, where the museum moved in 2004, has a rounded glass section under a red roof cap.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 93,641 contributors worldwide.