China Railway Museum

As the only professional railway museum in China, China Railway Museum dedicates itself to the collection, exhibition, and protection of railway relics and popularization of railway science and technology. China Railway Museum is composed of three branches, Zhengyangmen Railway Museum, East Suburb Railway Museum, and Zhan Tianyou Railway Museum, all of which are located in Beijing, and they vividly exhibit the history, current situation, and prospect of China Railway Industry together.

Zhengyangmen Railway Museum

As the main branch of China Railway Museum, Zhengyangmen Railway Museum (正阳门火车站博物馆), located in the southeast of Tian’anmen Square, was converted from the previous Zhengyangmen East Railway Station, which exhibits the history of China railway in the forms of vivid photos and models. It’s divided into five exhibiting sections, the tottering China Railway (from 1876 to 1911), China Railway in Difficulty (from 1911 to 1949), China Railway in Arduous Struggles (from 1949 to 1978), China Railway in Rapid Progress (from 1978 to 2002) and China Railway in Scientific Progress (from 2002 to now).

East Suburb Railway Museum

Sitting north of Jiuxianqiao, Chaoyang District, Beijing, the East Suburb Railway Museum (东郊火车博物馆) is composed of the Locomotive Exhibit Hall and the Comprehensive Hall. The Locomotive Exhibit Hall With has an area of 16,500 square meters (177,605 square feet), where more than 90 locomotives, ranging from 1881 to 1979, are exhibited, including 16 steam locomotives, 5 diesel locomotives, and one electric locomotive.

A number of highlighted locomotives are exhibited in the museum, including China’s earliest locomotive -No. 0 Locomotive, Mao Zedong Locomotive, Zhu De Locomotive, and Dong Feng 1301 Locomotive as well as foreign locomotives made in Great Britain, the US, Japan, Russia, and Belgium. Each locomotive is presented with written descriptions, from which we know their model numbers, lengths, speeds, and places of origin.

In addition, a great number of old-fashioned locomotives are exhibited as well, including special coaches for China's national leaders, different coaches with seats and berths, luggage cars, dining cars, and wagons, which witness the great progress of China's locomotive from backward condition to a modern level.

Zhan Tianyou Railway Museum

Standing at the foot of Beijing Badaling Great Wall, Zhan Tianyou Railway Museum (詹天佑纪念馆) covers an area of 2,800 square meters (30,139 square feet) with a floor area of 1,850 square meters (19,913 square feet), where over 2,000 pieces of railway relics are well-retained. Zhan Tianyou Railway Museum shows Zhan Tianyou’s (a famous railway engineer) creative life and the great achievement of China’s railway in the forms of material objects, photos, diagrams, models, and multimedia videos.