Palace Museum receives heavy gift from Hong Kong

BEIJING, June 20, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report by China.org.cn on the Palace Museum in Beijing receiving a batch of timber weighing 140 tons donated by Hong Kong:

On June 8, the Palace Museum in Beijing received a batch of timber weighing 140 tons, which has been dubbed by netizens as the heaviest gift ever presented to the museum.

The timber, seized by Hong Kong's Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department during an anti-smuggling campaign, was donated to the Palace Museum for the restoration of cultural relics and ancient structures. In spite of its dubious source, the precious wood is now in the best possible place to serve its proper purpose.

The amenable arrangement arises from a series of exchanges in recent years between the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Palace Museum. The Palace Museum has held several large exhibitions of cultural relics in Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong Palace Museum, scheduled for completion by 2022, will also host regular exhibitions of artifacts from Beijing's Palace Museum. In addition, the Youth Internship Program at Palace Museum, an annual summer project launched in 2017, enjoys great popularity in Hong Kong, where it broadens the horizons of participating young people surrounding the appreciation and conservation of cultural heritage.

In honor of traditional festivals such as the Spring Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong typically hold celebrations together. Other cultural projects, notably the "Chinese Opera Festival" and "Genesis and Spirit - An Exhibition on Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage," continue to bring mainland art to Hong Kong. Meanwhile, Hong Kong as a cultural metropolis enchants and dazzles people in the mainland through events like the "Hong Kong-Macao Visual Art Biennale," the "Hong Kong Classic Films Screening Exhibition," and the "Beijing-Hong Kong Dance Festival."

This year marks the 22nd anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland. Although in the course of nearly 100 years of history, Western culture has had an impact on Hong Kong, its culture remains deeply rooted in Chinese civilization. With increasing communication and interaction, more and more Hong Kong citizens, especially the younger generation, have felt the charm of Chinese culture and gained a growing sense of identity and belonging with the motherland.

As a national treasure of Chinese civilization, the Palace Museum receives cultural relics shared by all Chinese people. Since next year celebrates the museum's 600th birthday, Hong Kong's donation of the timber can be viewed as a generous birthday gift for the Palace Museum. Moreover, the donation also demonstrates Hong Kong's efforts toward the preservation of cultural relics and the legacy of traditional culture.

China Mosaic
http://www.china.org.cn/video/node_7230027.htm

Palace Museum receives heavy gift from Hong Kong
http://www.china.org.cn/video/2019-06/20/content_74903126.htm

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SOURCE China.org.cn