China

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The Beijing Aviation Museum is located within the campus of the Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics, in the city’s Haidan district (home to most of Beijing’s colleges and universities) about 15 km north west of the city centre. The collection was opened to the public in 1985, with the aircraft exhibits being formerly in use as instructional airframes with the university. Although relatively small, and very cramped, the museum contains a number of extremely interesting aircraft among its exhibits. Unfortunately, almost all of the actual aircraft are located outside, and the harsh Beijing climate has taken a serious toll of many of them, with most of the fabric-covered surfaces missing from the older machines, and some extremely faded paint (although recent photographs appear to show some 'tidying up' having been done). There are also some fascinating photos and models of Chinese-produced aircraft in the small inside display area.

As noted, almost all the aircraft are outside and for the most part photos here are good, although a fence around the main display areas means that any aircraft in the second row (luckily only a few, not particularly interesting, examples) are not really photographable, unless you can get permission to go closer.

It is possible to get to the museum by public bus (No 375 from Xizhimen bus station), but unless you speak some Chinese this is likely to be somewhat troublesome, and the easiest way is undoubtedly to take a taxi (ask for the 'hang kong hang tian da xue'). It’s open from 8:30 to 12 am and 2 to 5 pm Tuesday to Sunday (closed on Mondays).

(03) Lavochkin La-11	6201 MiG-9	001 Beijing-1	'25171' P-61 Black Widow	P-47 Thunderbolt

Click here for a list of aircraft on display.
Last visited on 28 January 2002	Top of page

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