Benxi: Culture, Industrial Heritage and Green Spaces

In the administrative area of Benxi, regional history, industrial heritage, paper art and green spaces offer distinct themes. When choosing your destination, you can consider whether you are most interested in museum collections, preserved industrial facilities or a landscape perspective. If you are looking for hotels in Benxi, you can use these themes as a guide to the character of your trip.

Regional history at the Benxi Museum

The Benxi Museum is located in Mingshan District, within the administrative area of Benxi. Founded in 1980 as a comprehensive museum, it is dedicated to collecting, exhibiting and researching regional artefacts, as well as to public education. The museum houses nearly 10,000 artefacts, most of them finds from the Benxi region. Its collection and exhibitions offer different ways to explore the region’s history: the collection provides an overview of the artefacts, while the exhibitions present historical themes through a variety of formats.

The permanent exhibition “Memories of Benxi” aims to convey the region’s history through object displays, reconstructed scenes and multimedia interactions. It comprises four sections: “Home of the First People in the Northeast”, “Caves: From Home to Burial Site”, “Yan and Han’s Advance East and the Rise of Goguryeo” and “The Fusion of Multiethnic Cultures”. The themes range from early human traces and caves to political and cultural developments. Rather than focusing on a single era, the exhibition covers a broad selection of regional historical topics.

Industrial history at Benxi Lake

The Benxi Lake Industrial Heritage Site Group is located in Xihu District, Benxi Shi. It comprises eight groups of historic sites, as well as numerous steel industry facilities and pieces of equipment that bring the site’s history to life for visitors. In 2013, the group was included in the seventh batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units, and in 2017 it was included in the first national list of industrial heritage sites.

The former Bensteel No. 1 Ironworks site retains coke ovens, a coal-washing building, hot-blast stoves and dust-removal facilities. The variety of facility types makes the industrial heritage more tangible than a simple historical label: the preserved examples represent different areas of the steel industry. Alongside the regional history presented at the museum, Benxi therefore offers another way to explore industrial history.

Paper art and cultural venues

The China (Benxi) Paper-Cut Culture and Creative Industry Park was established in 2012. The attractions list published on January 9, 2026, with information current as of December 2025, classifies the park as a 2A tourist attraction and gives its address as 19 Xinhe Street, Pingshan District. Paper art adds another cultural focus in the administrative area of Benxi, complementing the museum’s historical themes and the city’s industrial history.

Green spaces and destinations in the Benxi area

A municipal description from 2019 gives the area of Pingshan Forest Park as 17 square kilometres and describes it as the largest urban park in Benxi. A city tourism profile calls it the “green lung” of the urban area of Benxi. This adds a landscape perspective to the museum and industrial themes.

An entry published in 2021 describes a greenway in the Benxi area that connects several excursion destinations. These include Benxi Water Cave, the urban riverside recreation and scenic belt along the Taizi River, Guanmen Mountain National Forest Park, the Dashihu–Laobiangou Ecological Recreation and Holiday Area, Huli, the Yanghugou homestay area, Pingshan Forest Park and Benxi Lake Park. If you plan to use this connection for your trip, check the current route.

The themes can thus be clearly distinguished: the museum and industrial heritage site represent historical perspectives, the Paper-Cut Park focuses on paper art, and Pingshan on green space.

Discover more destinations: Liaoyang, Shenyang, Yingkou, Fushun, Fuxin, Dandong, Anshan, Huludao.

For the broader travel overview: Liaoning.