Weifang Kite Museum

The First Museum In The World Dedicated To Kites; Home City Of The Weifang International Kite Festival And Of The International Kite Federation · Weifang, Shandong

Weifang has been making kites for something like a thousand years, and in 1989 it built the first museum in the world devoted to them - a building whose roof is itself a kite, a dragon-headed centipede in coloured glazed tile running the length of the structure, which is either the most literal piece of architecture in Shandong or the most charming, depending on your mood. Inside are more than two thousand kites: Weifang's own dragon-head centipedes that need several people to launch, hard-winged and soft-winged forms, swallows from Beijing, birds from Nantong that carry whistles and sing as they fly, and kites sent from dozens of other countries. The craft here is bound up with the woodblock New Year prints of nearby Yangjiabu village, because the same painters decorated both. Every April the city holds an international kite festival on the coast, the sky fills with things that should not be able to fly, and this small museum becomes the centre of a global hobby.

66 Xingzheng Street, Kuiwen District, Weifang, Shandong, China

Generally open around 9:00-17:00 with last entry before closing, and may close one day a week - confirm locally. Admission is modest and has at times been free. THE WEIFANG INTERNATIONAL KITE FESTIVAL IS HELD EVERY APRIL with dates set annually, and it takes place at coastal flying grounds rather than at the museum; confirm the year's dates before planning around it, and book accommodation early, as the city fills. Yangjiabu Folk Art Village nearby runs kite-making workshops and keeps its own hours.

Weifang Kite Museum on Spottos · Explore more places on Spottos