The Baotou Museum presents regional history, natural history, and the industrial development of Inner Mongolia's most productive city. Admission is free. The permanent collection spans from Paleolithic artifacts found in the Yellow River valley through the Ordos Bronze Age culture to the development of the steelworks and rare earth industry that defines modern Baotou.
The museum's strength is its honest engagement with the industrial present: an exhibit on rare earth processing describes both the economic importance and the environmental consequences of Baotou's position as China's primary rare earth producer, including the toxic lake formed by processing waste outside the city. For a museum of this type to acknowledge its city's environmental impact at all is unusual in Chinese provincial cultural institutions. A visit of 90 minutes covers the main collection; the Mongolian ethnographic section has good examples of traditional dress, saddle-work, and domestic objects.