The Oriental Metropolitan Museum is built on the ruins of the original Jiankang City (present-day Nanjing) during the Six Dynasties (3rd-6th centuries). With a construction area of more than 23,000 square meters, the museum is designed by Pei Partnership Architects of the United States. The Pei-style construction module, geometry, light and shadow were systematically used in the construction of the museum.

The museum is the largest museum in Nanjing devoted to displaying the history, culture, and relics of the Six Dynasties.

The core theme of the museum is to showcase the splendor of Nanjing as an oriental metropolis. Four permanent exhibitions of the museum— “Capital of the Six Dynasties”, “Style of the Six Dynasties”, “Celebrities of the Six Dynasties”, and “Six Dynasties in Retrospect” --were among China’s 12th National Top 10 Exhibition Boutiques in 2015.