The Yangzhou Museum, located inside the 1,500-year-old Tianning Temple, is a local historical museum of China. The predecessor of the Museum is Relics Museum founded in 1951. It was renamed "Yangzhou Museum" in 1953. The former site of the Museum was inside the Memorial Temple of Shigong and it was moved to the new site.

There are 15,000 pieces of cultural relics with over 100 of the first grade. The David's deer (Elaphurus davidianus) fossil is the best-preserved of its kind extant in China, with a history of more than 10,000 years. The main exhibits are displayed in the second main hall, and show the history of Yangzhou from the Neolithic Age (20,000BP) right through to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), most impressively the history of the three "golden" ages: the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD), the Sui (581-618) and Tang (618-907) dynasties, and the Qing Dynasty.

The Museum displays historical relics unearthed in recent years, including pieces of Han Dynasty bronze ware, lacquer ware, and jade ware. There are four basic displays --Yangzhou historic relics, Yangzhou painting school of the Qing Dynasty, Yangzhou arts and crafts of the Qing Dynasty and Stone Inscription of Antai Xuan, and three subject exhibits: Yangzhou Han Dynasty lacquer, Yangzhou Tang Dynasty bronze mirror, and coins of past dynasties.

Most of the museum exhibits are from the Tang and Qing dynasties. Having one of the four largest harbors during the Tang Dynasty, Yangzhou developed handicraft workshops and its commerce flourished. The bronze mirrors it produced, which were hung in the imperial palace, enjoyed a particularly high reputation.

Treasures include: a Han Dynasty jade pot for warding off evil, and a bronze oil lamp; a Sui Dynasty celadon chicken-head pot; and a Tang Dynasty painted pottery figurine modeled after a dancing girl. A Tang Dynasty dugout canoe, made out of a Nanmu tree trunk, is exhibited at the center of the Museum. There is also a Yuan Dynasty sacrificial-blue glaze porcelain plum-blossom vase, the largest of its kind extant, in good condition, and a Ming Dynasty red clay teapot, whose style is named after its creator, Shi Dabin, a famous red clay teapot producer, whose works are seldom seen these days.

As the then main salt distributing center during the Qing Dynasty, Yangzhou enjoyed a period of prosperity, which brought with it a cultural boom. This resulted in the formation of the Yangzhou School, along with a group of painters known as the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou, who broke away from conventions and revolted against narrow mindedness, and consequently had a deep influence on contemporary Chinese paintings.

According to historical records, over 7,000 Arab merchants lived in Yangzhou in the Tang Dynasty. The Museum houses their pottery, pieces of writing, and also daily-use utensils -- artifacts seldom seen elsewhere, which also indicates that Islamic Culture was spread into China over 1000 years ago. To the west of the museum is the memorial to Marco Polo, who went to Yangzhou during the Yuan Dynasty and served as the top official, winning respect and appreciation from the local people.