A visit report to China Agricultural Museum

A Visit Report to
China Agricultural Museum
Submitted by:
Ripon Kumar Sikder, PhD Fellow
Institute of Cotton Research, CAAS
ID No. 2017Y90100144
Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Zhongguancun Nadajie, Haidian District, Beijing 100081, P. R. China

1
Educational visits are very important for the overall development of a student. It gives an
opportunity to learn from own experiences and from the experience of others. When a student
visits a historic place and learns about the history of that place, it feels as if he is seeing the
historic events from his own eyes. Simply reading books on different arena produces only book
worms. For having enlightened citizen for a better world-order educational excursion is very
important. It also breaks the monotony of life and fills the mind with joy. Moreover, travelling
teaches it’s to bear hardship, and this is a good training for success in the struggle of life. An
excellent and knowledgeable tour was arranged by the International Office, Graduate School of
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (GSCAAS), Beijing, China for the international
students of 2017 Autumn Semester on 15 December 2017 at China Agricultural Museum.
The China Agricultural Museum attached to the Ministry of Agriculture of PRC. It’s located on at
Dongsanhuan North Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing. In July 1983, the preparation for the
construction of CAM started under the authorization of the State Council; it opened its doors to
the public on 13 September 1986. China Agricultural Museum is located on east 3rd ring road
north in Chao Yang district. It covers a total area of about 42 hectares. It is one of the ten famous
buildings in Beijing. It is the only one national agricultural museum. The museum gives exposure
to China’s long agricultural history and prominent agricultural civilization. At present museum
have five exhibition halls along with one outdoor exhibition park.
Figure 1: Different halls in the China Agricultural Museum
The Structures and the Environment
The main construction of the museum consists of 10 separate exhibition halls with ethnic features,
the main Office Building, Collections’ Storehouse, and some other accessory buildings. The No. 1
Hall is located on the main axis of the museum and looks on to the main gate of the complex; the
No. 2 and No. 3 Halls are lined up on its north and south; the No. 4 Hall and No. 5 Hall stands

2
symmetrically face to face, and so are No. 5 and No. 6 Halls; the No. 8, 9, 10 Halls are at the
back of the southern part of the museum, in the shape of a triangle. The ten halls are one
harmonious whole: grand and magnificent; majestic and spectacular. On the back of No. 1, 2, 3
Halls, three lakes with an area of 41 thousand square meters are interconnected with each other.
The lakes ripple in the winds while fish and ducks play on them happily; fragrant flowers and
weeping willows line the lakeside. The halls are connected by galleries, square pavilions, and
colonnades. Various flowers and trees are planted on both sides of the galleries. Pines, cypresses,
gingkos, and willows can be seen everywhere in the museum. The traditional ethnic constructions,
flowers and trees, lakes and clouds reinforce each other's beauty, making a pleasant and charming
view.
We have visited five exhibition halls and gather a lot of historical information related to ancient
agriculture as well as the development agriculture. We have seen more than 50,000 collections as
agricultural cultural relics, specimens, ancient books and traditional tools are preserved in the
museum including 20,000 cultural relics and precious ancient books. It remains open every day
except Monday. In a nut shell, we will share our experiences regarding Chinese Agricultural
Civilization. The brief description of my study visit is as follows:
 Chinese Agricultural Civilization Exhibition Hall
This demonstrates agricultural civilization in china, mainly reflects the development of
agricultural knowledge & innovation, and highlights the social, economic and cultural
accomplishments in ancient China. The exhibit exposes the features of modern agriculture, and
highlights the development and prosperity of current agriculture, completely representing the
foundation worth of the agricultural traditions and expertise in China.
As the major exhibition hall in the museum, Chinese agricultural civilization exhibition and
science. It mainly exhibits the agricultural history of china, including the development of
agricultural science, culture, economy and society.
Among the collections of CAM, stoneware from Neolithic Age, potteries and painted potteries,
bronze implements, iron implements, traditional farming tools, ink-stones, ancient silk fabric,
food coupons, agricultural posters have already formed Special collection series and its own
characteristics, some collection series are in the top flight in China. Except for that, there are
some other good miscellaneous antiques.

3
 Teenager Agricultural Science Popularization Hall
The hall provides teenagers with a place not only
to know agriculture but to experience it in person
by active participation and interesting interaction.
This hall consist of different pictorial scientific
innovation and achievement of China in
agriculture. Via Doing It Yourself and thinking
hard teenager visitors can acquire scientific
knowledge about agriculture and further feel
interested in it. With interest, they may raise
their awareness for scientific innovation and give full play to their imagination of further
agriculture.
 China’s Soil Specimen Exhibition Hall
A crucial component of agriculture is soil, without soil it wouldn´t be possible to grow plants. As
far as food is concerned it is important to study a couple of its properties that are fundamental for
plant growth. Land is the basic means of agricultural production on which human beings rely for
existence.
The soil specimen exhibition hall mainly represent different soil type of different place and time
of China. It also represent the geographic configuration, plants and products. The hall
systematically introduces the soil image of China. It relates the knowledge about relation to plant,
soil and human.
China’s topography is characterized by high land in the west, lower land in the east, and hilly,
varied terrain. The first terrace is the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with an average altitude over
4,000m, the second terrace starts from the north and east edges of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and
ends in Daxinanlin Mountain, Taihang Mountain, Wushan Mountain, Xuefengshan Mountain; its
landform is highland with basins at altitudes between 1,000 to 2,000 m and the third terrace is
east of the above area and extends to the eastern continental shelf, its landform is mainly plains
and hills. Based on the complex influence of climate, topography, vegetation and human
development, China's soil types are complex.

4
 Chinese Traditional Farming Tools Exhibition Hall
Chinese traditional farming tools, developed in long-
term practice are the fruits of Chinese farmers’
wisdom and hard works. Traditional farming
implements refer to those invented in ancient times,
and used for a long time and used until recently or
still being used now. Chinese traditional farming
tools exhibition hall presents nine units in order of
season: tilling, sowing and transplanting, irrigation
tools, harvesting tools, grain processing tools,
transporting, grain storing tools. Materials used in making the traditional farming implements
were mainly wood, and stone, bronze and iron. Functionally, farm implements are mainly used
for digging; soil preparation; fertilization; sowing; cultivation; irrigation; harvesting;
transportation; threshing; grain processing; fishing and hunting; feeding; and labor protection.
CAM has been collecting farming implements for the last 20 years, and it now has more than
5,000 farm implements, from 30 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions (Taiwan not
included). It enjoys the largest number of, and the most complete, traditional farm implements in
China. According to the function of farming tools, the display is divided into eight parts: tools for
soil preparation and tillage; seeding and cultivation; inter-tilling; irrigation; harvesting; grain
processing; transportation; and labor protection. There are various plows used in different kinds
of terrains, unique-shaped gourds used for sowing, odd-shaped sowing calabash, 9-meter-long
dragon-bone water lift, and all kinds of threshing tools.
 Ancient Agriculture in Painted Pottery Exhibition Hall
The invention of pottery is one
of the signs that marked the
beginning of New Stone Age.
Painted pottery, ancient artistic
works of art after a development
for 3000 years, truly recorded
the agricultural civilization of
ancient China. The invention of
pottery satisfies many needs in
daily life, a big contribution to the traditional agricultural society. This pottery is one of the signs
that marked the beginning of New Stone Age. Painted pottery, ancient artistic works of art after a
development for 3000 years, truly recorded the agricultural civilization of ancient China. The
delicate patterns on it reflect ancient people’s daily activities such as finishing and hunting as
well as their knowledge about animals, plants and stars. Pottery collections are important in
CAM, including painted pottery, white pottery, black pottery, glazed colored pottery, and tri-

5
colored glazed pottery of the Tang Dynasty. Except for painted pottery, most is funerary (burial)
ware. As a sign of the peak of pottery civilization, painted pottery is not only a treasure of ancient
art, but it is also closely related to the agricultural culture in ancient times.
CAM treats usage and ornamentation as the two main themes in its endeavors to collect painted
pottery. Through unremitting efforts, especially intensive collection in recent years, CAM has
already collected over 500 pottery antiques excavated from Dadiwan, Yangshao, Miaodigou,
Majiayao, Banshan Machang, Xindian and Qijia.
 Outdoor Exhibition Park
Natural environment of the museum is excellent with different farming garden and statues
consisting of traditional one and modern one. It offers visitor not only rural landscapes but also
recreational places.
In the traditional farming garden different sculptures give vivid pictures of some typical
traditional farming activities in the four seasons, reflecting the purity and simplicity of Chinese
farmers.
In the modern farming garden, simple shapes, bright colors and abstract symbols are adopted to
reveal in modern sculptures the theme of modern agricultural science and explain complicated
agricultural concepts and theories.
 Some Other Featured Halls
 Prehistoric Stone Tools
Neolithic Age is often
considered closely related to
agricultural civilization.
Ancient people used axes,
stone adzes, stone chisels and
stone shovels as the main
agricultural instruments. CAM
collects more than 200 items
of stoneware of the Neolithic
Age: stone axes, stone adzes, stone chisels, stone shovels, stone saddle-querns and

6
holystones, which were mainly farming tools and implements and which form a themed
exhibition of prehistoric agricultural implements. Among the collection are prehistoric
farming tools unearthed from the Cultural Ruins of Longshan and Hongshan. The main
farming tools included stone scythes, stone shovels, stone knives, stone axes and willow-
leaf-shaped stone saddle-querns with three or four legs. The stone saddle-querns and
holystones displayed in CAM are representative historical relics of the culture ruins, and
they have great cultural values.
 Ancient Silk Fabrics
More than 3,000 years ago, sericulture and silk
weaving were already significantly developed in
the China and it was well noted that China was the
first country in the world to cultivate silkworms.
Silk fabric was a famous and unique product in
ancient China. It was brought too many parts of the
world through the Silk Road. The silk fabric
unearthed from Qian shan yang sites of Zhejiang
Province in 1958, dates back to 2700 B.C, the
earliest known silk material. From the Xia Dynasty
to the late Warring States period, more and more with the content and colors being richer
than before. The silk technology was proving to be more and more advanced. In the Han
Dynasty, Chinese fabrics were exported to Central Asia, western Asia, Africa and Europe,
through “the Silk Road”, and became popular with people in these countries. CAM has
collected plenty of fabrics from the Tang to Ming and Qing Dynasties, among which one
brocaded with double deer and flowers being very precious antiques.
 Chinese Modern Farming Tools
China's farmers have long used techniques
such as fertilization and irrigation to increase
the productivity of their scarce land. Over time,
many farming techniques have been
modernized: chemical fertilizers have
supplemented organic fertilizers, and
mechanical pumps have come into use in
irrigation. Government planners in the 1980s
emphasized increased use of fertilizer,
improved irrigation, mechanization of agriculture, and extension of improved seed
varieties as leading features of the agricultural modernization program.

7
 Agricultural Posters
Chinese New Year paintings, known as “Nianhua” in Chinese, are derived from the
ancient “door god paintings”, a common art form that Chinese villagers are happy to
have, mostly used for the Chinese New Year decorations, and they add a festivity to the
celebrations, especial on the eve of the traditional Chinese New Year – the Spring
Festival. They are a unique category of paintings. Agricultural posters are a new-style
Nianhua, a special painting, used as propaganda and for vivifying atmosphere with its
lively themes and figures. The China Agriculture Museum has collected about 2,000
pieces of Agricultural Promotion Pictures in recent years. There are many award-winning
and representative works from such famous artists as Jin Meisheng, Han Meilin, Ge
Xianlan, Liu Wenxi.
In conclusion, the tour of Chinese Agricultural Museum (CAM) provides me the knowledge of
ancient Agricultural technology as well as the development of agriculture. I am very thankful to
the GSCCAS authority to arrange such a wonderful tour. I also believe, the authority will
organize more excursion trip that will enrich our knowledge store.

A visit report to China Agricultural Museum

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Similar to A visit report to China Agricultural Museum (20)

More from PARTNER, BADC, World Bank (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

A visit report to China Agricultural Museum