The BESIII muon identification system

The muon identification system of BESIII experiment at the IHEP is described. The muon counter (MUC) is composed of resistive plate chambers (RPCs) working in self-quenching streamer mode with the gas mixture Ar/C2F4H2/C4H10=50/42/8. The design, the construction, the mass production and the quality control result of the detectors are described in detail. The paper also presents the performance of the bare RPCs and the superlayer modules with cosmic rays. Finally, the subsystems of MUC, including the RPC superlayer modules, the gas systems, the HV and LV system and the readout electronic system, are also presented.