Ji'an Museum (集安博物馆)

The Ji'an Museum is the local museum of Ji'an City, in Jilin province, on the Yalu River border with North Korea, and the principal place to see artefacts recovered from the Goguryeo capital cities and tombs that surround the town. Ji'an was the centre of the Goguryeo kingdom from the early 3rd century AD until 427 AD, and the UNESCO World Heritage property Capital Cities and Tombs of the Ancient Koguryo Kingdom, inscribed in 2004, includes sites within a few kilometres of the museum. The collection draws on excavations at Gonnei City, Wandu Mountain City, the royal tombs such as the Tomb of the Great King and the General's Tomb, and the many smaller mounded and stone-chamber tombs of the Ji'an basin. Displayed objects include bronze vessels and fittings, gilt ornaments, iron weapons and armour, pottery, roof tiles with moulded inscriptions, and funerary items. Rubbings of the Hotaiwang Stele allow visitors to read the characters that are hard to see on the monument itself, and models and photographs explain the layout of the tombs and their murals. The museum is arranged thematically and broadly by period, moving from the founding of the kingdom through the capital period to the relocation to Pyongyang and the later history of the region. It provides context that makes a visit to the outdoor sites far easier to follow. The museum is small and can be seen in about an hour. Interpretation is mainly in Chinese with some Korean and limited English.