Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum

The Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum sits on Renmin Road in Yuzhong District, directly opposite the Chongqing People's Great Hall on People's Square. The museum's curved, sail-like facade houses permanent exhibitions covering the history and resettlement of the Three Gorges region, the natural history of the Yangtze River basin, and Chongqing's role as China's wartime capital during the 1937-1945 period, alongside galleries of bronze artifacts, calligraphy and folk art from the surrounding Bayu region. Visitors typically move through the ground-floor Three Gorges exhibits first, which include large-scale dioramas and salvaged artifacts from the area flooded by the Three Gorges Dam, before continuing to upper-floor galleries on regional history and art. A visit runs two to three hours for those covering the main halls, longer for visitors following every gallery in detail. The museum's atrium and the plaza outside, facing the Great Hall's domed rotunda across People's Square, offer the best photo opportunities of the museum's own architecture. The museum is busiest on weekend mornings and during school holidays, when the free-entry policy draws large local crowds; arriving on a weekday shortly after the 9:00AM opening allows visitors to see the main galleries before tour groups and school groups arrive later in the day. The museum is closed on Mondays except during public holidays, and free timed-entry reservations must be booked one to seven days ahead through the museum's WeChat mini-program.