Changchun World Sculpture Park
Changchun, Northern China
A truly global outdoor gallery, the Changchun World Sculpture Park features hundreds of carvings from a myriad of countries and cultures, including Inuit, Māori, and Maya pieces, set amid parkland around a lake. Four separate museums feature East African Makonde wood carvings, works by Chinese sculptor Wei Xiaoming, and art from calligraphy to installations.
The basics
There’s a small charge to visit the Changchun World Sculpture Park, with an additional fee for the museum, but you don’t need to reserve either in advance. Highlights include replicas of Rodin works, an enormous sculpture of three women representing Friendship, Peace, and Spring and surrounded by national symbols, and pieces from as far afield as Andorra, Timor-Leste, and Samoa. A few Changchun city tours stop by here, and visiting with a guide can be helpful, as there’s little signage and no centralized catalog of exhibits.
Things to know before you go
- The Changchun World Sculpture Park is a good choice for art lovers, walkers, and photographers.
- The park spans 227 acres (92 hectares). It takes about 2 hours to explore the outdoor displays, and longer if you’re visiting the museums, so be sure to wear comfortable shoes.
- There are a range of food options in the park, as well as restrooms.
How to get there
The Changchun World Sculpture Park is in southern Changchun, about a 6-mile (9-kilometer) drive south of People’s Square. It’s more than a 1-mile (1.5-kilometer) walk from the nearest subway station, Weixing Square (Line 1), so most travelers will find it easiest to rideshare with DiDi or hop on a tour.
When to get there
The Changchun World Sculpture Park is open daily from morning to afternoon, with slightly earlier closing hours during the winter season. Winter temperatures can be bracing—in January, the mercury rarely rises above 14 degrees Fahrenheit (-10 degrees Celsius)—but the museums provide an opportunity to warm up.
Winter ice sculptures
In the winter, travelers traditionally head to nearby Harbin for its ice sculpture festival, one of the world’s largest. But if you’re in Changchun between December and February, Changchun Ice and Snow New World, about a 15-minute drive outside the city, features a wealth of brilliantly colored ice sculptures, ice slides, and ice bars, as well as activities from snow rafting to ice sledging, ice bikes, and ice mazes.
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