A semimonthly magazine published by the Tianjin Muse-um in 1931. [Photo provided to China Daily]

New birth

Since the founding of New China, the museum has been merged with several other museums, including a local history museum and an art gallery.

In 2012, a new museum, involving an investment of 830 million yuan ($130.9 million), was opened.

The total area of the new museum covers 55,000 square meters including 16,900 sq m of exhibition space, 12,117 sq m of archives and 13,279 sq m of public space.

The highlights of the new museum's collection are oracle bones, jade ware, bronze ware, seals, glided bronze Buddhist sculptures, ancient Dunhuang texts (Dunhuang is best known for its Buddhist cave sites), paintings, stele rubbings, calligraphy and ceramics.