Palace Museum to exhibit more collections in 2019

2018-09-11

The Palace Museum is expected to exhibit more than 8 percent of its 1.86 million collections by the end of 2019, a move its curator said would convince more people to protect cultural relics.

The proportion of Palace Museum collections exhibited increased to 3 percent from 1 percent in recent years, and more than 8 percent will be shown to the public by the end of 2019, said Palace Museum curator Shan Jixiang, Caijing reported on Saturday.

As a result, people can see more, and the cultural relics can be maintained every day instead of "sleeping" in the warehouse, Shan said.

He said that about 80 percent of those who visit the museum usually go straight to see the places where the emperors rested or held wedding ceremonies, and imperial gardens, then leave without gaining any cultural insight.

More than 80 percent of the Forbidden City's space is open to visitors. It is expected to become a museum that will blend into people's social life in 2020, the city's 600th anniversary, Caijing reported.

"It is exciting to know that The Palace Museum will open more of its space. I have been there several times as it is a fabulous place to get to know more about Chinese culture," a Beijing resident surnamed Yan told the Global Times on Monday.

"I will take my child there in future. It will be a good education tour for him," Yan said.

Next month, Nan Da Ku, a 156 meter-long warehouse, where 2,000 pieces of furniture of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) are located, will be opened to the public, Shan said.

The Palace Museum received about 17 million visitors in 2017, 8 million more than the France's Louvre museum received.

"We wish hundreds of millions people could visit the museum, so we use the internet technology to promote it," Shan said on Saturday.

The museum has put high definition pictures and information of its collections and buildings on its website, which was viewed about 900 million times in 2017.

Global Times