PLA Museum

Since I went to the Vietnam Army Museum on my recent visit to Hanoi, I figured it would be a good bookend to visit the PLA’s Museum.
Also, there’s a di tie stop right THERE so why not visit!

Say what you will, the PRC’s leaders love their convertibles…
Unlike the museum in Hanoi that had a lot of photographs and some hardware displayed for context, the PLA museum in some ways, seems more like a display of war booty. When you first walk into the great hall, you see hardware. Lots of hardware.

Inside the building, it seems almost church like.
Naturally, the stuff inside is all PRC made weaponry. Their first V-2 knockoff. Locally made versions of the MIG-19 and MIG-21. Various tracked vehicles. Missile launchers. Heavy machine guns. And even SUVs. And one with a cannon on it. And all of this is just the main hall. On the FIRST floor!

I WANT THIS! It would make driving in San Francisco soooo much more interesting!

A MiG-21, I mean a “made in China” F-7
On either side of the main hall, there’s an outdoor courtyard with, yep, more hardware! This time, most of it is war booty mostly captured during the 1945-49 period. Lots of American armor, tracked vehicles and some aircraft. Also two PRC made patrol boats that wouldn’t fit in the main hall.

This is a P-51D Mustang with a PLAAF roundel on it. Strange.

An F-86 Sabre probably captured during the Taiwan Straits Crisis
If you aren’t already overwhelmed and you make it to the second floor of the main hall, there’s display cases full of pistols, rifles, assault rifles and all sizes of machine guns and bayonets. If it was used on mainland China, chances are that it’s represented here.
Besides the weapon displays, there’s separate exhibits on the third and fourth floors about the PLA’s involvement in the Korean War and of its actions during WWII. Educational.
Not bad for a museum that gets its own subway stop. No cafe on the grounds though. There IS a McDonald’s across the street though.