KOREAN WAR MUSEUM
DANDONG, CHINA
The Korean War Museum, which also translates as the Memorial Hall of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, is in Dandong, Liaoning, China. It is the only museum in China dedicated to the Korean War, and is located in Dandong (formerly Andong), the eastern Chinese city on the border with North Korea across the Yalu River. Andong was the site of the command post of the Chinese People’s Volunteers (CPV) during the war, a location preserved in the museum that covers 182,000 square metres.
Perhaps more accessible than the museums in North Korea, it offers a remarkable circumstance in modern conflict museums in that it presents the opposite side’s perspective, even a balanced one to the sites in North and South Korea.
The museum boasts 20,000 items to show the victory in 1953 over what China saw as US aggression, as well as the development of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The museum has many pieces of equipment, and includes a 132-metre long panoramic painting of the battle of Ch’ongch’on River (November/ December 1950), a victory for the Chinese. It also has a 53-metre tall tower to commemorate the 1953 armistice. A museum existed on the site since 1958 but the present, muchenlarged, museum was opened in July 1993 on the 40th anniversary of the Panmunjom Armistice. It closed for renovations in 2014 and reopened in late 2020. It includes a Martyr’s Wall, which bears the names of 183,108 Chinese soldiers who died in the war.
Open Tuesday-sunday 9am-4:30pm, closed every Monday. Admission is free