It's a new museum only opened in the recent years - where the showcase focuses on the exhibits from the Palace Museum in Beijing.
It’s a museum that’s worth visiting - not because of its collection (in this case), but a great learning journey of China’s history - in particular the last Dynasty (Qing 清). I visited Yuan Ming Yuan 圆明园 onsite twice in my previous trips to Beijing, but none left such a deep impression of what it was, how it looked like and the architecture (certainly since what’s presented was just the ruins).
The multimedia reconstruction of the summer palace added much meaning and understanding behind the intention of many details to the place. The drawings were very interesting, which I had no impression that I saw something like this onsite. Indeed, one of the floor plans that awed me is this one… never thought that anything that’s ‘behind’ could be presented in this manner:
Perhaps it’s the layout - find it much easier to appreciate the exhibits in this museum, compared to the actual place. I guess it’s the crowd that makes a difference. Here’s a much quieter environment where one can slowly read and move around. I can’t imagine how it's like if it's located at the actual palace museum in Beijing or onsite. In addition, because of the layout, we can take a much closer look of the items here. All these may sound minor, but makes a huge difference to the visitors’ experience.
One interesting thing to take away (from another gallery):
While the paintings were supposed to depict the life of the Qing royal family, a number of them were painted with the characters on Han attire. Similarly, one of the portraits of an emperor was in the Han attire. It demonstrated how the degree of appreciation and admiration of another race or culture, and the respect - not just a commoner, but even from the royals. Obviously! The Manchus were the one who took over the country from the Hans/ Mings!
One new learning point - even the emperor adopts a very discipline life! It's essential for one who needs to attend to so many things! Time management is critical! Not for the past, not for the royals, but also for us, for today's context.
A dose of the culture through hands-on... like the subtle approach that the museum takes to engage its visitors. See how engaged this lovely couple was...
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