The museum covers a total area of 103,000 square meters, with a building area of 57,000 square meters and the exhibition area of 20,000 square meters. It is a "National First-Class Museum" built on the site of the Jiangdong Gate mass murder in the Nanjing Massacre. Since its official opening on August 15, 1985, the museum has received more than 90 million viewers from over 100 countries and regions by the end of 2017.