China National Silk Museum

Opened in 1992 on the south shore of West Lake, the China National Silk Museum is the largest textile and costume museum in China dedicated to the history of silk production, a craft with roots in the Hangzhou region stretching back to Neolithic-era sericulture more than 4,000 years ago and reaching a peak during the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279), when Hangzhou (then Lin'an) became the imperial center of silk weaving. The permanent collection includes excavated Han- and Tang-dynasty silk fragments, reproductions of Song-dynasty imperial silk garments, historic looms including a working reconstruction of a Qing-dynasty drawloom, and Ming-Qing embroidered court robes. Exhibits are organized thematically across dedicated halls covering sericulture origins, dyeing and weaving technology, and the silk trade along the Silk Road, alongside a research and conservation wing that conducts textile restoration for archaeological finds nationwide. Expanded and renovated in 2016, the museum now spans several connected buildings amid landscaped gardens that include mulberry trees historically used for silkworm cultivation.