China's top five museums

"Give me a museum and I'll fill it", said Spanish Artist and Painter Pablo Picasso. Museums are three-dimensional encyclopedia. Visiting China museums is a great way to learn about China's history and culture for China vacation deals. Here are handpicked China's top 5 museums for your reference.
Top 1: The Forbidden City (Beijing Palace Museum)
The Forbidden City (UNESCO), situated north of the Tian'anmen Square, is historically and artistically one of the most comprehensive museum in China, and is world's largest imperial palace complex. The yellow-glazed tiles and ancient relics in the Forbidden City make it easy to feel like you're being transported back in time, when the city existed in all its imperial glory.

The Palace Museum in the Forbidden City has the country's largest collection of ancient art works, some of which are invaluable national treasures. Art works in the museum's collection total 1,052,653, including paintings, pottery, bronze wares, inscribed wares, toys, clocks and court documents. The Forbidden City is a must-see for your China best tours.
Top 2: Taipei Palace Museum
The Taipei Palace Museum and the famous Forbidden City in Beijing are derived from the same institution. The splendid architecture of the structure is modeled on the Forbidden City in Beijing and incorporates elements of traditional Chinese royal design in feudal society.

The Taipei Palace Museum houses large collection of priceless Chinese artifacts and artwork, including ancient bronze castings, calligraphy, scroll paintings, porcelain, jade, and rare books, many of which were possessions of the former imperial family. The full collection, which consists of some 650,000 pieces, spans many dynasties. Each exhibit, however, puts on display only about 1,700 pieces at a time. At this rate, assuming a duration of three months for each exhibit, it will take 100 years to cycle through the entire collection.
Top 3: The National Museum of China
The National Museum of China, a four-storeyed main building with two symmetrical wings, runs more than 300 meters north and south along the eastern side of Tian'anmen Square. The predecessors of the National Museum are two museums: the Museum of Chinese History and the Museum of Chinese Revolution, which shared the same building complex. The building was one of ten famous architectures built in 1959 to mark the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic. The Museum of Chinese History was in the South Wing while the North Wing housed the Museum of the Chinese Revolution. They were both opened to the public in 1961.

Many of the items on display are national treasures and precious rarities.
Top 4: Shaanxi History Museum
Built in traditional Tang architectural style, Shaanxi History Museum is a much modernized national history museum in China. The museum is free and a must-see for Silk Road tours.

The museum treasures more than 370,000 cultural relics, all of which are unearthed in Shaanxi province, including relics made of stone, bone, bronze, terra-cotta, china, jade, gold, silver and also murals, seals, calligraphy and paintings, etc. These relics can be traced back from over 1 million years ago to the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and they reflect the history and people life in many aspects from culture, art to science etc. Most of the relics are rare old treasures in the world.
Top 5: Shandong Provincial Museum
At the foot of the Thousand Buddha Hill (Qian Fo Shan), Shandong Provincial Museum covers the nature and history of the ancient Qi and Lu States.

From intricate bronze wares, tourists can learn the customs of various dynasties, such as the worship of Shang Dynasty gods, ancestor worship in the Zhou Dynasty, and Han Dynasty human relationships. In the natural collections, specimens cover 200 species. Among them, fossils of trilobite, the Taishan swallow, the dinosaur, and so on, influence knowledge in ancient biologic and geographic fields.
You can obtain more via China travel agents.