36 Dongjiaomin Hutong
10/8522-5018
HOURS: Tues.-Sun. 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
COST: ¥5
METRO: Qianmen (Line 2)
One of the city’s most interesting and offbeat museums, this cornucopia of crime and punishment is located inside the old New York City Bank building with the imposing columns.
It displays 1,500 relics from a 70,000-strong collection, including guns and batons, Qing torture and execution devices, graphic photographs of crime scenes, and the stuffed body of Feisheng, the famous German Shepherd police dog. Look out for the formerly top-secret map charting Kim Il-Sung’s journey around Beijing from his 1987 visit and the guns used in the robberies of notorious criminal Lu Xianzhou.
The gift shop sells oddly sinister souvenirs, like toys made from gun shells.