Jianchuan Museum Cluster ~ Anren
A must see of more than 30 museums displaying artifacts associated with the past 100 years of Chinese history. You may also be pleasd to discover that included within the Museum Cluster grounds, visitors can find meeting rooms, entertainment, catering, and lodgings, enough to keep every member of the family happy.
The Museum’s four main feature theme groupings; Age of Red, China Folk Customs, War of Resistance, and the Wenchun Earthquake, which amazingly was opened by museum owner Dr. Fan Jianchuan just one month after the terrible disaster. The four themed grouping is joined by the “Plaza of Chinese Heroes” where 100 amazing life-sized cast-iron statues can be found standing somewhat reminiscent of Xian’s Terra Cotta Warriors.
The War of Resistance series features halls with names such as “The Core of Resistance”,“The Hall of Conventional Battlefront”, and “Heroes of the Flying Tigers”, more on this subject to follow.
The series “China Folk Custom” features the halls of “Traditional Furniture” and the Three-inch Golden Lotus”. While the “Age of Red Seals-Clocks & Badges”, and the “Age of Everyday Items” and the “New China Porcelain” halls make up the “Age of Red” series of displays.
Entrance to each individual hall is 20CNY, or you may choose a full-pass to all the series halls for only 100CNY, and generally considered to be the far better deal, as you may return within the same calendar year to visit any of the halls not entered on a previous visit.
Easy to follow signage written in both Chinese & English makes renting a traditional single seat or four seat bench bike a very good option as the plush and very extensive grounds of the Museum Cluster property cover more than 500 Acres.
Dr, Fan Jianchuan, was a child of nine when his father, accused, and subsequently pilloried for anti-revolutionary activities, instructed his son to “collect every scrap of paper on these allegations that you can” and to this day that is exactly what Dr. Fan has done. Now, being regarded as China’s most vigorous collector, Mr. Fan hauls more than 100 containers from the length and breadth of China each year. All filled with prized memorabilia collected and bought by the agents he employs in every Chinese province. One hundred and twenty one of the Cluster’s diversely rich repository of artifacts are classified to be "Class One" National Treasures of China.
When discussing the cultural revolutionary years Dr. Fan has said “Some of us hate those years, some of us think it was a great experience, the good and bad is intertwined within every person, we all have this contradiction within…I do as well. When I die and the museum is still here, I still won’t know the truth, but at least it will be there for history to judge, and that is enough for me.”
Once having seen many of Anren’s Museum Cluster displays, and noting they actually are being displayed, a person may consider such a public display of this extraordinary collection might very well reflect a change in the way today’s China looks at, and regards it's not so distant history.
