National Art Museum of China — Attraction in Beijing

You might think that it is hard to argue with a National Art Museum nearby the Forbidden City, easily accessible by subway and free of charge. Despite all of these pluses, I was not that impressed.

Let me elaborate....

1. While it is certainly free of charge, getting in the museum is not free of hassle, including having to get in one line to show our passports to get free tickets and then having to go to the back of another line to use the ticket to enter. As a result, it took a lot of time to get in, actually.

2. The museum is not easy to navigate and there are few signs to guide. When we decided to leave, we struggled to find the exit and the correct elevator to access the ground floor. It was unnecessarily complicated and as is sometimes the case in China, there was a dearth of explanatory signs or maps.

3. As mentioned, the exit is on a different side of the building than the entrance, basically releasing you in an alley from which you have to figure out how to get back to the street (some streets are blocked off)

4. Most importantly, I was rather underwhelmed by the art on display. I recognise that this is a subjective matter and others may certainly disagree but for my wife and myself, we found it to be less than impressive.

With all that said, free is a nice price and the location is convenient if you are visiting Beihai Park or the Forbidden City.

Pro Tip: The museum closes at 5:00 so I would not recommend trying to enter much after 3:00. With the wait to enter, especially in the afternoon, you might find yourself wondering if it was worth...

The museum is inside a beautiful building. I had to book beforehand through a mini app on WeChat. It was free entry and I had to show my passport to enter. They have a wonderful variety of Chinese artists with paintings in lots of different mediums. There were also several different exhibitions going on promoting young artists. There was also a big collection of Chinese traditional paintings on the first floor. On the top floor there was a big collection of historical traditional Chinese paintings. Although not all the explanations had English translations it was still really interesting to see paintings from Chinese artists. There is also museum staff around every corner that are helpful and make sure the paintings are not touched. It was nice that the museum had a collection of both modern and...

It's a 550 m walk (10 min) from exit E of the Dongsi metro station on line 5. Free admittance with a passport. There are five floors with exhibits on puppets, calligraphy, and paintings. All items are beautifully arranged, behind glass with a direct spotlight, with simple English names but there's no further English text about the details. My 2 year old was scared by the "World of puppets" exhibit and had no interest in the "heritage of calligraphy" exhibit, but was interested in the modern paintings. The paintings were also my favorite. It's a modern museum with beautifully arranged exhibits. You...