Six Arts Museum

Six Arts Museum is a vast private museum of traditional Chinese folk art in Lili Ancient Town, around an hour from central Suzhou. Housed in a converted former factory, its four floors provide around 18,000 sqm of exhibition space and contain more than 40,000 pieces collected over almost four decades by the museum's American founder, Du Weiming.

The scale and variety of the collection are what make Six Arts unusual. Displays range from enormous architectural components, antique furniture and temple shrines to wood and stone carvings, painted signs, screens, masks, puppets, baskets and objects from everyday Chinese life. Many pieces originally came from old homes, temples and other historic buildings and have been preserved rather than lost during redevelopment.

Rather than presenting everything in conventional glass cases, the museum uses colourful, immersive galleries and encourages visitors to experience many of the objects at close range. Particularly striking displays include the Ten Thousand Buddha Grotto, collections of Ming and Qing dynasty temple art and large-scale architectural carvings.

There's more here than the museum itself. The wider Six Arts complex includes traditional arts and crafts activities, cultural performances, a museum hotel, restaurant, tea shop, photography experiences and Six Arts Adventure Mini Golf, inspired by the ancient Chinese game of chuiwan (捶丸).

Its location in Lili Ancient Town makes it particularly suitable for a day trip rather than a quick museum visit. The museum alone is substantial enough to allow plenty of time to explore.