China National Silk Museum

China National Silk Museum was opened first in Feb 1992 and reopened in Sept 2016. Now it has become one of the first state-level museums in China, where you'll find 9,000 square meters of displays, divided into several galleries, in a typical southern Chinese garden of 42,286 square meters near the West Lake, a World Heritage on the UNESCO list. First, the Silk Road Gallery will give you a journey to the Chinese silk historically and the Silk Road geometrically. Both the earliest preserved silk from Qianshanyang site, Huzhou (c.2200 BCE) and the earliest pattern loom model from Laoguanshan, Chengdu (c.100 BCE) are on display. More silk textiles are from the Silk Road, not only polychrome woven silks from the northwest of China, mainly from the 3rd to 10th centuries, but also painted and embroidered export silks to Europe, mostly from the 18th to 19th centuries, which will attract your eyes.

For more information on how the silk is made, you can head to the Sericulture and Weaving Galleries for the whole process from mulberry planting, silkworm raising, silk releasing from cocoon, dyeing, weaving and embroidery, and the “Sericulture and Silk Craftsmanship of China” has been added to the UNESCO World Intangible Cultural Heritage. If you are lucky enough, you can probably visit the Textile Conservation Gallery where the silk treasures from all over the country are being treated, repaired and installed or packed, since this museum owns the highest technology of textile conservation in China, and runs a lot of international joint projects with many world-famous museums and institutions, such as the British Museum and the Smithsonian, etc.

Lastly, the Fashion Gallery is the only gallery in China focusing on contemporary costumes. There are several sections, one for Chinese fashion of the 20th century, one for Western fashion of the recent 400 years and a temporary special exhibition, A World of Silks, of all the silks from the world on the occasion of the reopening.

China National Silk Museum is a specialized museum, focusing on the collection and exhibition of silk, textile costume and fashion, not only Chinese, but also abroad. It is a research museum, doing laboratory research and conservation work, not only for museum collection but also new findings from archaeological field. It is a living museum, weaving on traditional looms, dyeing with natural materials and creating silk products with new designs. It is an international museum that has sent several silk exhibitions touring around the world and established an International Association for the Studies of Silk Road Textiles (IASSRT), including around 30 institutes from 15 countries.

Address: 73-1 Yuhuangshan Road, Xihu District, Hangzhou

Telephone: +86 571 87035223