Founded in 1951, the Yunnan Provincial Museum is a comprehensive museum. Since that year it has collected various kinds of special items with historical and ethnic features from archaeological excavations, purchases from collectors and has been the recipient of donations from organizations. With more that 190 thousand pieces of art works ranging from bronze wares, ancient moneys, porcelains, old Chinese paintings, stone tablet rubbings to stamps, the museum ranks first in terms of the volume of collected items. Among these items, more than 1000 are categorized as first class cultural relics at state level.

From 1955 to 1960, an extensive tomb excavation was conducted in the ancient tomb clusters of  Jingning Shizaishan in Yuxi city, Yunnan. The large amount of bronze wares from this excavation unveiled the mysterious legend of the Ancient Dian Kingdom recorded in ancient Chinese historical literature back to more 2000 years ago.  Later on these were regarded as Shi Zai Shan (Stone Village Mountain) Culture.

In 1972, the tomb excavation in Li Jia Shan in Jiang Chuan County made it another important archaeological site for Shi Zai Shan Culture. The excavated items presented more evidence for people to understand the Ancient Dian Kingdom, enabling people to understand this long lost civilization on China's frontier.

From 1975 to 1976, there was another archeological dig at Wang Jia Ba in Chuxiong. About 1245 items were found which are believed to belong to the period of Spring and Autumn of the West Han Dynasty in ancient China (around 770 BC to second century AD). Among these important unearthed art works there are five bronze drums that could be dated back to the Spring and Autumn Period. They are believed to be the earliest of their kind in the world up to now.

Next to the Bird and Flower market for local specialty shopping, and a place like the Archway of Golden Horse and Green Rooster for sightseeing, the Yunnan Provincial Museum is one of the best choices for a day trip in downtown Kunming City. The museum is very accessible—besides available taxis, there are many buses which pass by the museum.