My Chinese colleague urged me to do some sightseeing during the moon festival. So – since none of us had been there before – we decided to visit The National Museum next to Tiananmen Square an saturday. When surfacing from the subway station we had to cue first at a security checkpoint where both us and our baggage was scrutinized. Lighters were taken away from people. Some time ago terrorists had set off a bomb on the Square of Heavenly Peace. There is no admission fee for entering the museum but foreign visitors have to show their passport at a special office.
Entering the museum is quite an experience if you are not familiar with Chinese prestige architecture: The hall is huge with vast flights in all directions. After looking at the bold Dalí sculptures on the ground floor we decided to briefly have a look at some of the Chinese permanent exhibitions: bone scriptures, wooden furniture and last but not least the most remarkable show of gifts presented by official visitors to the People of China.
One of the most impressive present Richard Nixon presented when initiating normalization talks with Mao Zedong in 1972: A pair of swans made of porcelain molded by an US american artist. Only a pity that most of the Chinese traditional exhibits did not have any English descriptions.
Have a look at some of the exhibits in the gallery below. Click on images to view enlarged
