Beijing Police Museum

Lonely Planet review

Infested with propaganda perhaps, but some riveting exhibits make this a fascinating exposé of Běijīng's dà gài mào (local slang for the constabulary). Learn how Běijīng's first Public Security Bureau (PSB) college operated from the Dongyue Temple in 1949 and find out how officers tackled the 'stragglers, disbanded soldiers, bandits, local ruffians, hoodlums and despots…' planted in Běijīng by the Kuomintang (KMT).

There are also eye-opening accounts of how KMT spies Li Andong and Yamaguchi Takachi planned to mortar the Gate of Heavenly Peace, and a welcome analysis of how the Běijīng PSB was destroyed during the 'national catastrophe' of the Cultural Revolution. Altogether 9685 policemen were dismissed from their posts during the paroxysms of violence - spot the yawning gap among portraits of PSB directors from June 1966 to June 1977. The museum covers grisly business: there's Wang Zhigang's bombing of Beijing Train Station on 29 October 1980, an explosion at Xidan Plaza in 1968, while upstairs the museum gets to grips with morbid crimes and their investigations.