Guangdong Museum is a comprehensive facility showcasing Guangdong’s enduring civilization. Straddling Guangzhou’s new urban axis along with Guangzhou Opera House, Guangdong Museum, together with the Central Boulevard and the Riverside Green Belt, forms Guangzhou Cultural and Art Square and is a landmark on the north bank of the Pearl River.

Guangzhou Museum has a zoned area of 41,000 square meters and a gross floor area of 67,000 square meters on one floor underground and five floors aboveground. It is comprised of an exhibition hall (20,500 square meters), a storage system for collected items (8,300 square meters), an educational service facility (3,100 square meters), a scientific research facility (4,700 square meters), and security, public service and comprehensive management systems. The exhibition hall comprises four sections devoted to history, nature, art, and temporary exhibitions.

A general opinion is that the new Guangdong Museum does looks like a crafted and engraved "Pandora's Box". The image of "a container for loading treasures" does, with architectural modeling, combine well in a natural way. The concise and prominent "container" image and bold color processing of the new museum form an effective contrast to the nearby oval Guangzhou Opera House, with one static and the other dynamic, such that there is a strong visual dialectic.

The concept of spatial organization for the new museum derives from the traditional ivory ball, with far- reaching layers, attracting the audiences to come inside layer by layer. "The design concept is quite purposeful since it imitates the ever-present ivory ball in Guangdong arts, and in this instance makes use of ambulatories and layers of interlocking building space to attract audiences to go deeper into the 'box' to hunt for treasures and to enjoy a unique experience in changing sceneries while moving through the hallways.

Gray and red colors, as well as simple and subtle style, cast historical significance and cultural meanings on the new axis area which has a strong modern flavor.

The new museum features a novel structure and a unique design. Its massive steel truss suspension structure rests on a number of steel-reinforced concrete tubes. Its gigantic rooftop steel truss had an overall slide weight of 8,700 tons, making it the world’s largest overhead steel structure slide work. As the gigantic steel trusses are suspended, no structural column is required, thus maximizing the space for exhibits.

The new museum features first-class facilities and equipment, and implements comprehensive intelligent management, including intelligent security, equipment management, information and communication, network application, and audiovisual systems. The storage rooms and some exhibition halls are maintain at constant levels of humidity and temperatures and equipped with gas protection systems.

※ Admittance: ticket entry is for free

※ Opening hours: 9 am to 17 pm from Tuesdays to Sundays, closed on Mondays, Legal holidays and special circumstances excluded).

※ The daily number of visitors is limited to 5,000.

※ Transportation: Guangzhou Metro Line 3, Zhujiang New Town or Metro Line 5, Liede or Zhujiang New Town.