China has an ancient civilization with a very long history.Understanding it solely throuth the study of documents is clearly inadequate.A wealth of objects and remains has been preserved on China's vast territory and under ground much of which has been collected and is exhibited in various kinds of museums.This raw material of history can,in a ceratin sense,be considered more valuable for our under standing of the past of China than documents and historical records.Among the fifty-seven museums selected for this book,many have been designated as key protected cultural sites by China.Some have been included in the UNESCO List of World Cultural Heritage Sites.We hope that this volume can serve vistors as a guede to under standing these museums.