CHINA Tabacco Museum, the only museum to focus on the industry in China, as well as the largest tobacco museum in the world, opened to the public last Monday.

The museum in the Yangpu District has seven exhibition halls, dedicated to the history, agriculture and industry, trade and culture of tobacco. Given more than 400 years of tobacco cultivation and use in China, the museum covers a long historical record, from the introduction of tobacco into China, the rise and fall of the tobacco industry in old China and its rich tobacco culture to recent developments in the tobacco industry.

In the introduction hall, a huge fresco - 28 metres long and 2.8 metres wide - depicts many places of great interest including historical sites in China against a background of tobacco leaf patterns. Many old smoking sets used by Chinese celebrities, for example, Mao Zedong, He Long and Yang Jingyu are on display.

Many precious documents and records concerning the tobacco industry in the early 1900s, including varieties of early tobacco labels, are also on the exhibition. Besides the various tobacco products, all sorts of implements from tobacco pipes, lighters and ashtray to tobacco cases and machines can be found in this diverse and impressive collection. Many vivid waxworks displayed in the exhibition halls recall the people of old times and bring a lot of fun and interests as well.

According to Xin Yuanming, responsible for the museum, tobacco was introduced into China in the Wanli period (1573-1619) of the Ming Dynasty.

However, one set of smoking utensils, the oldest exhibit in the museum, was unearthed from a grave dating back to the middle of Ming Dynasty, undoubtedly earlier than 1573. Experts are still confused about the exact date of tobacco's's introduction to China.

Standing opposite the Shanghai Cigarette Factory, the buildings housing the tobacco museum look grand and distinctive. Xin said the inspiration for the design came from the ship in which Christopher Columbus discovered tobacco in America during his global adventure and the mysterious Mayan Temples of the area in which tobacco was discovered.

China Tobacco Museum

728 Changyang Lu

Tel: 6535-9966