China Aviation Museum

The China Aviation Museum is the largest of its kind in the People's Republic, located in the Changping district about fifty kilometres north of central Beijing. Opened in 1989, its dramatic main hall reuses a tunnel inside Mount Datang Shan that was originally built as a hardened aircraft shelter for the Shahe military airfield, designed to protect planes from air strikes. The collection covers several hundred aircraft, including Soviet MiG fighters, Chinese bombers, helicopters, Mao Zedong's personal Boeing transport and even parts of US reconnaissance planes shot down during the Vietnam War. For anyone interested in military and aviation history, it is one of the most impressive aircraft collections in Asia.