China Railway Museum – Zhengyang Gate

Temple of Heaven Park & Dongcheng South


In the old Qianmen Railway Station, which served Beijing from 1906 to 1959 (although only the clock tower is original), this museum offers a fairly uninspired retelling of the development of the capital and of China’s railway system, with plenty of photos and models, but few English captions.

A lack of space means it doesn’t have many actual trains, although you can clamber into the cab of a life-sized model of China's high-speed trains. Hardcore trainspotters should make tracks to its sister museum on the northeastern outskirts of Beijing, which is vast and filled to the brim with historical locos.

Transportation

  • subway: Line 2 to Qianmen, exit B

Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Temple of Heaven Park & Dongcheng South attractions

1. Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall

0.06 MILES

Presenting a top-down perspective on the world's most micromanaged megacity, dry exhibits detail the government's grand schemes for Beijing, with scant…

2. Zhengyang Gate Arrow Tower

0.12 MILES

This is the forward-defensive structure of Zhengyang Gate, which sits behind it. The imposing building is a jiànlóu (arrow tower), which would have been…

3. Qiánmén

0.13 MILES

Qianmen, aka 'Front Gate', consists of a pair of gate-like structures: the northernmost is the 40m-high Zhengyang Gate, which dates from the Ming dynasty…

4. Zhengyang Gate

0.13 MILES

Qianmen (前门), or the Front Gate, consists of a pair of gate-like towers, the northernmost being the 40m-high Zhengyang Gate, which was also the largest of…

5. Former Dutch Legation

0.22 MILES

A green-roofed building rises behind a wall at No 40, which was once the Dutch Legation. To the north, a faded street sign reads 'USSR Embassy Compound…

6. Chairman Mao Memorial Hall

0.22 MILES

One of Beijing's more surreal spectacles is the sight of Mao Zedong's embalmed corpse on public display within his mausoleum. The Soviet-inspired memorial…

7. Qianmen Avenue

0.27 MILES

Running due south from Beijing's 'front gate', the mighty Qianmen, this street was once the main commercial thoroughfare through what was known as the …

8. Beijing Police Museum

0.29 MILES

Propaganda notwithstanding, this is an engaging foray into the storied history of Beijing’s police force. Learn how China's first Security Bureau (PSB)…

  • placement: superzone
  • path: Destinations/POIs/superzone
  • possible size: [970, 250], [970, 90], [728, 90], [1, 1],
  • targeting:
    {
      "url": "china/beijing/temple-of-heaven-park-and-dongcheng-south/attractions/china-railway-museum-zhengyang-gate/a/poi-sig/1313099/1333765",
      "destination": "Temple-of-Heaven-Park-&-Dongcheng-South",
      "neighborhood": "Temple-of-Heaven-Park-&-Dongcheng-South",
      "position": "superzone"
    }