Located on the east side of the Tian'anmen Square in Beijing, the museum was established in 2003 through the merger of the former National Museum of Chinese History and the National Museum of the Chinese Revolution. The predecessor of the National Museum of Chinese History was the Preparatory Office of the National Museum of History, which was in turn founded on July 9, 1912.

The National Museum of China, one of the biggest museums in the world, is home to over 1 million cultural relics, including bronze, jade and gold artifacts, pottery, porcelain, paintings and calligraphy-counting them all could take several years. Check out the following top 10 treasures you mustn't miss out on when visiting the museum.

   Jade dragon (红山玉龙)

Height: 26.3cm

Width: 29.3cm

Weight: 1000g

Time: Neolithic, Hongshan Culture (6000-5000 BC)

Excavated in 1971 from Ongniud Banner of Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the jade is known as "The First Dragon of China" as it is the earliest and one of the most splendid of jade carvings. The distinctive shape of the dragon in a reverse C, featuring a long extended snout, small head and upturned nose with a flat end and two nostrils, is quite remarkable and the vivid engravings astonish people to this day.

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