The Overseas Chinese Museum is the first cultural and exhibition institution in China that is funded by overseas Chinese. [Photo/Overseas Chinese Museum]

Plans for the Overseas Chinese Museum were initiated in 1956 by famous overseas Chinese businessman and philanthropist Tan Kah Kee, also known as Chen Jiageng, and the museum was opened in 1959. It is the first cultural and exhibition institution in China that is funded by overseas Chinese.

 
It is not only China's first museum that systematically collects, studies, and displays the history and achievements of overseas Chinese, but is also a comprehensive museum that houses ancient cultural relics and natural specimens.

It is a national-level patriotic and social science education center, a national defense education base of Xiamen, as well as a national center for overseas Chinese international cultural exchange. It was also included in the first list of Xiamen's travel routes of revolutionary culture.

The building features a traditional Chinese palace design, which is decorated with white granite slabs and green glazed tiles. It covers an area of 12,500 square meters.

The museum is home to more than 6,000 cultural relics, including bronzeware, Chinese ceramics, ancient coins, ancient calligraphy and paintings, ancient carving crafts, foreign ceramics and glassware, as well as bird, animal, fish, and mineral specimens. Among them, there are nine national first-class cultural relics, as well as 14 calligraphy and painting works that were included in the Zhong Guo Gu Dai Shu Hua Mu Lu (Catalogue of Ancient Chinese Calligraphy and Painting).

In addition, there are more than 3,000 historical relics, physical objects, and a large number of documents about overseas Chinese, as well as more than 20,000 photos, films, genealogies, and audio-video materials about overseas Chinese history.

Three exhibitions respectively featuring overseas Chinese, cultural relics collected by Tan Kah Kee, as well as birds and animal specimens are open to the public free of charge throughout the year.

Add: No 493 Simingnan Road, Xiamen, Fujian province