The Chinese Aviation Museum Datangshan

I visited the Chinese aviation museum three times, in July 2002. July 2004 and August 2007. A magnificant museum,about 40 miles north of Beijing, with a large number of interesting aircraft and helicopters, all perfectly maintained. It’s a long journey, but well worth the trip!

Travelling through China is a unique experience and still only a few Chinese speak english. Fortunately my local guide knew of the existance of this museum, and more importantly, the way to it. You can go there by bus, but that is not recommended; to find the right bus is difficult, they are mostly overcrowded and do not have air-con (when we visited it was 35° Celsius). But our Chinese guide was kind enough to arrange a taxi, tell the driver where he had to deliver us, wait there for hours and hours until we’ll finished and drive us back to Beijing! Total price only 400 yuang (about 40 euro in 2004)! The museum is not easy to find, as there is a second museum, called the ‘military museum’, which also has some aircraft, and which is much better known in Beijing. And a third, less known museum, called the Beijing Aviation Museum. Moreover the Chinese aviation museum is out-of-the-way, without any signs.

After driving for about one hour, we reached the entrance of the museum and payed 40 yuang each (about 4 euro) and learned that the museum is closed on Mondays. At the entrance there were some Chinese streetsellers, selling water (important!), Kodak and Fuji films and lots of model aircraft. Not only the Russian and Chinese types, but especially F-14, F-15, F-16, F-18 and Apaches are popular there.

The correct name of the museum is not clear. The museum calles itself ‘China Aviation Museum Datangshan Changping’; Changping is the nearby village and Datangshan is the name of the only hill in this region (‘shan’ means hill). The museum was founded on a part of the now closed Shahe airbase; the runways are a mile distant and are connected to the museum by a long taxiway, which is also used as access for the traffic. Next to the museum the taxiway continues up the hill; in the hill is a large U-shaped tunnel, which, in the operational days of this part of the airbase, undoubtedly sheltered numerous aircraft. Near to the taxiway there are some aprons and a hangar, so there is room for many, many aircraft, mostly military but also some civil ones.

Before we describe the contents of the museum, it is necessary to explain the Chinese aircraft notations. After the Second World War the Chinese air force mainly got Russian-built aircraft like MIG-15, MIG-17, Tupolev TU-4, and so on. Very soon China restarted its own aviation industry and manufactured these Russian aircraft under license, many types being radically improved. Their notation was easy: attack aircraft are indicated with an ‘A’, bombers with a ‘B’, fighters with an ‘F’, transport aircraft with an ‘Y’ and helicopters with a ‘Z’. In some cases a ‘T’ for trainer or ‘R’ for reconnaissance are added. The first Chinese built attack aircraft was called ‘A-1’; a BT-5 is a Chinese built trainer version of the Il-28 bomber. In the rest of the world the indications for Chinese built aircraft are “J” for fighters, “H” for bombers, “Q” for attack aircraft. We shall use these in our part of the world used notations.

The factories in China do not have a name; there are a lot of aircraft manufacturers, and they are simply indicated by the town where they are housed. Well-known plants are in Shenyang (Shenyang Aircraft Corp.,J-2, J-5, J-6, J-8), Xi’an (Xi’an Aircraft Corp.,J-5, J-6, J-7, H-6), Chengdu (Chengdu Aircraft Corp., J-7), Harbin (Harbin Aircraft Manufacturing Corp., Y-5, Y-12, H-5, Z-5, Z-9) and Chengdu (Chengdu Aircraft Corp., J-10, FC-1).

The museum was opened to the public in November 1989. The aim of the establishing of this museum is officially called: “to provide the substantial file of aircraft, recall the aviation history, popularize aeronautical science, strengthen the exchange with foreign countries, promote the development of aeronautical science and technology and serve the air force and the country”.

The museum is very large and covers more than 330,000 square metres. First there is the tunnel, of which both entrances are guarded by aircraft on a pole, an J-7 (the Chinese MIG-21) and the prototype of an J-12. More than fifty aircraft (some of them are replica’s!!) are parked inside the tunnel in two rows, but photographing is difficult as it is rather dark. At one side there are a number of aircraft from WWII, both Chinese and captured Japanese aircraft. Then a number of aircraft from the period after the Second World War follows, like the MIG-15 and MIG-17, their Chinese alternatives J-2 and J-5, some J-6 and J-7s and an J-8. Some of the older MIG-15 and J-5s have the well-known ‘MIG-kills’ under the canopy; in this case they shot American and South Korean aircraft during the Korean war. Six MIG-15s from the Korean war (air force of North Korea) are present.

Further on are three beautiful H-5s (the Chinese IL-28), a standard H-5, a HJ-5 trainer and a HR-5 reconnaissance aircraft. At the end of the tunnel there are some aircraft from abroad; a Sabre from the air force of Pakistan, an US Army UH-1H, captured in Vietnam, and the latest acquisition of the museum: an F-104S from the Italian air force. This Starfighter withn its original grey colour scheme, coded 4-1/MM6795, was flown to China by an Italian Hercules and handed over by the Italian Ambassador to the museum in May 2001. Finally there is an Apache helicopter, but a closer look learns that it is a full scale mock up, made by a Chinese aviation enthusiast, Mr. Meng Yifeng, in his spare time.

The next part of the museum are some ‘flight lines’ of  fighters parked on the taxiway outside. In 2002 there were no ropes, fences or information boards, making these aircraft perfect for photographing. But in 2004 unfortunately a low fence was placed in front of the flight lines. There is a flight line of mainly J-5 fighters, but with a MIG-15 from North Korea, some MIG-15UTI’s and a JJ-6 (the trainer version of the MIG-19, only built in China!) of the Chinese air force. A second flight line has only J-6 fighters on display, and a third line has three Q-5 attack aircraft. Impressive!!!

Then there are the areas with a specific theme. There is a bomber display area, with an H-6 bomber, a fighter display area with numerous MIG-15, J-5, J-6 and J-7 fighters, a helicopters display area with mainly Z-5 and MI-8 helicopters and a transport display area with some Li-2 (= C-47) aircraft and a number of Y-5 (license built AN-2) aircraft. One of these is very special: an Y-5 on floats!! There are photos on which clearly visible this aircraft once was airworthy!!

And last but not least there are the aprons, the grass, the corners of the airfield and even a small lake. Some aircraft worth mentioning are the following – two giant TU-4s (the Russian version of the B-29 bomber, one of which is an early warning aircraft) in Chinese colours; three C-46 Commandos without any registration; four Russian built C-47 Dakotas of the Chinese air force; an Il-10, Il-12, IL-14 and Il-18; the only Viscount the Chinese ever had; the HS-121, AN-24 and a TU-124. Very fine is a Be-6P near a small lake, especially made for this flying boat. Some civil aircraft can be found, like an AN-12, Il-18, Il-62 and even an American coded DC-8.

When we visited the museum it was not busy with people, so that walking around, taking a closer look at the aircraft and photographing without people was very easy to do. And for the few Chinese visitors the most important curiosity was not one of the aircraft, but those three strange European people (a father and two grown-up sons), armed with cameras and notebooks!

In conclusion we think that this is a fantastic museum, the best one we ever saw (and we did visit a lot of them, all over the world). A large area, more than 150 aircraft stored in a beautiful way. The Chinese did a great job. It is a long journey – but then you have got something!!