Visitors, many of them children, visit the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution in Beijing on Sunday. The museum was renovated and expanded for seven years and on Saturday opened five new exhibition venues. Photo: Liu Xuanzun/GT

China's top military museum in Beijing reopened on Saturday after a seven-year renovation and expansion process. 

The renovation and expansion were launched in 2012. The museum's space has been doubled from 60,577 square meters to nearly 153,000 square meters, with a showroom area increasing from 30,000 to 60,000 square meters, Li Hongjun, chief curator, told the Global Times.

Crowds of families visited over the weekend, hoping to educate their children about the importance of national defense and patriotism. 

The expanded Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution gives the younger generation a sense of patriotism and lets them know the strength of the Chinese people, especially important as the US wages a trade war against China, visitors told the Global Times.

The main hall features China's early generations of aircraft including bombers and fighters, as well as ballistic missiles like the DF-1 and DF-2. Children were running everywhere here on Sunday, thirsting for knowledge from display boards and asking their parents for information.

In the newly opened venues, models of China's missiles, army equipment, aircraft and warships in active service were exhibited. They were accompanied by text commentaries and electronic screens playing videos that explained how such weaponry works in combat.

A dozen children sat focused on a screen showing how aircraft missiles destroy ground targets and excitedly jumped from their seats when a missile blew up a radar installation in a massive ball of flame.

A father at the museum told the Global Times that he brought his boy in the hope of broadening his horizons and giving him a sense of the importance of national defense.

"I want him to know that China has grown through difficult years into a strong military power. I want to give him confidence, let him know that he was right to be born in China," the father said.

Another senior visitor said that he was excited to reexperience China's military development through the exhibition, noting that he wanted to let the younger generations know that the ongoing trade war initiated by the US was nothing to fear compared with many of China's previous experiences.

The renovation and expansion were launched in 2012. The museum's space has been doubled from 60,577 square meters to nearly 153,000 square meters, with a showroom area increasing from 30,000 to 60,000 square meters, Li Hongjun, chief curator, told the Global Times.


Newspaper headline: China reopens bigger, better museum of military history