A romantic outing at Beijing's museums

In Europe, spending a day at a museum has long been fashionable and romantic. No wonder Carrie, the star of Sex and City, loves to while away her time at museums, theaters, and galleries.

In China, with the recent Ancient Egyptian Treasures' Exhibition, 100 Years of French Design Exhibition, and the British Museum Treasures' Exhibition, going to museums has also become popular with fashionable young men and women.

Beijing boasts a wide selection of museums, both traditional museums and modern. Whether you want to lose yourself in the past or peek into the future, Beijing has museums for all tastes.

*Public Security Museum

With graphic and realistic displays of accidents and disasters, this museum is not for the fainthearted, but is a great learning experience for safety conscious types.

Visitors are learning to tie knots firm enough to save lives.

In the Road Safety Area, a vivid traffic accident scene, with a real crashed car and bloodstains, shocks visitors. There are several bright racing cars for visitors to 'drive' along a simulated road on a big screen. If drivers break traffic regulations, they are fined and points are deducted; if they crash, the car jolts realistically.

In the Earthquake Area, people born after China's big quake in 1976 can make up for their missing experience. At the touch of a button, the whole room shakes in all directions to simulate the irregular movement of a real earthquake. Chairs are fastened to the ground for startled visitors to hold onto for balance.

Visitors can also practice how to set off fire alarms, use fire extinguishers, escape through smoky corridors and tie knots firm enough to save lives.

Opening times: Wednesday to Friday for groups (reservations are needed), Saturday and Sunday for individuals
Location: next to Haidian Park, at the northwestern corner of Wanquanhe Bridge on the 4th Northwestern Ring Road
Tickets: Free entry
Tel: 010-62880052

*Capital Museum

The Capital Museum opened at the beginning of 2006. Some of its most interesting features are the Cultural and Museum Activity Area, the Multimedia Interaction Zone, and the Digital Theatre.

The Cultural and Museum Activity Area provides a wide range of educational activities, particularly for children, including pottery making, simulated repair of cultural relics, Chinese ink rubbing, printing New Year pictures, and painting Peking Opera make-up.

The Multimedia Interaction Zone has two parts. "Treasures of the Capital Museum" has high-definition photos of cultural relics that can be enlarged for up-close inspection. The key part of the introduction to the photos of cultural relics comes with pictures, text, movies and sound. "A Look at Beijing" shows historical pictures of Beijing, historical sites, dramas and operas, and traditional folk vocal art.

Shows screen at the Digital Theatre every hour starting at 9:30am for the morning session and 1:10pm for the afternoon session.

The British Museum's popular "Treasures of the World's Cultures" exhibition is now on at the Capital Museum. The exhibition includes the world's oldest tool from Africa, a 3,000-year-old mummy, ancient Egyptian tablets, Greek busts and Roman sculptures. But there are no Chinese items from the British Museum on display.

Hungry visitors can go eat at the basic restaurant, bar and cafeteria at the eastern end of the basement. There's also a café at the western platform on the second floor.

There is a bookshop, arts and crafts shop, souvenir shop, oil painting hall, traditional Chinese painting hall and a cultural relic souvenir shop.

Opening times: 9am-5pm, Tuesday to Sunday.
The British Museum treasures exhibition runs until June 5.
Location: No.16, Fuxingmen Waidajie, Xicheng (Opposite to Changan Shopping Mall)
Tickets: RMB 20 per person/50 percent discount for children, students and teachers.
Audio guides are available to rent for RMB 30 (RMB 100 for deposit)
Tel: 010-64012118

*China Red Sandalwood Museum

The Red Sandalwood Museum is China's biggest privately owned museum displaying red sandalwood artworks.

The museum itself is a piece of art. Built under the direction of experts who built the Imperial Palace, the Red Sandalwood Museum is huge but has a lot of elegant details.

Most of the red sandalwood works displayed here are elaborately carved imitations of originals in the Palace Museum. There is also Ming and Qing Dynasty furniture, Buddhist artworks, and carvings shaped like old Beijing courtyards. The museum's interior design is modeled on the Palace Museum.

Museum guides are only available when there are enough visitors.

Opening times: 9am to 5pm, Tue. to Sun.
Location: No.23, Jianguolu, Chaoyang
Tickets: RMB 50 for adults/RMB 30 for students and senior citizens
Tel: 010-85752818