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Museums
China had imperial and private collections of cultural
relics in each dynasty, but the first museum worthy of the name in China was set
up by foreigners in the mid-19th century. The first museum established by the
Chinese themselves was the Nantong Museum, which was set up by industrialist
Zhang Jian in 1905. In 1912, preparations were made for the construction of the
History Museum, the first national museum after the founding of the Republic of
China, in the former Imperial College (the highest educational administration in
the previous feudal China) in Beijing. In 1949, there were no more than 21
museums in China.
In October 1949, the Ministry of Culture established the State Administration of
Cultural Relics, which was in charge of the work of museums nationwide, and drew
up a series of decrees, guiding principles and policies concerning both cultural
relics and the setting up of museums. By 1999, there were 1,371 museums
nationwide run by cultural relics administrative departments alone. If those run
by other departments are included, the total number of China.s museums will be
well over 1,800. There are museums specializing in social history, arts,
minerals, local customs, and science and technology. A large number of museums
well known at home and abroad, such as the Palace Museum, the Museum of Chinese
History, the China Aviation Museum, the China Geological Museum, the China Coin
Museum, the China Printing Museum, the Shanghai Museum, the Nanjing Museum, the
Shaanxi History Museum, the Henan Museum, the Liaoning Provincial Museum, the
Gansu Provincial Museum, and the Yunnan Museum of National Minorities, as well
as more than 300 memorial museums reflecting the glorious revolutionary
traditions of the Chinese people, including the Museum of the Chinese
Revolution, the Military Museum of the Chinese People.s Revolution, the China
Opium War Museum, the Wuchang Memorial Hall for the Revolution of 1911, the
Memorial Hall of the Site of the Huangpu Military Academy, the Memorial Hall of
the Site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the
Jinggang Mountains Revolutionary Museum, the Yan.an Revolutionary Memorial
Museum, the Memorial Hall of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Former
Residence of Sun Yat-sen, the Birthplace of Mao Zedong and the Former Residence
of Deng Xiaoping are noted for their rich collections of cultural relics,
exhibitions, social educational roles, active academic atmosphere, substantial
research achievements and increasingly advanced modern scientific
administration. Attention is now being paid to the design and construction of
new museums to promote the coordinated development of quantity, quality, type
and distribution of museums.
Protection of Cultural Relics
Since the beginning of the 1990s, China has protected a
huge number of cultural relics and achieved remarkable success. The special
subsidies appropriated by the Central Government for the protection of cultural
relics in more than 1,000 projects have reached about 700 million RMB yuan. As a
result, a large number of cultural relics have been saved from destruction.
Prominent successes in the maintenance and protection of historical sites are
the Potala Palace (Lhasa, Tibet), the Kumbum Monastery (Huangzhong County,
Qinghai Province), the Caves at Mount Sumeru (Guyuan County, Ningxia Hui
Autonomous Region), the Kizil Thousand-Buddha Cave (Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous
Region), the Longmen Grottoes (Luoyang City, Henan Province), the Yungang Caves
(Datong City, Shanxi Province), the Goddess Hall (Taiyuan City, Shanxi
Province), the Mountain Summer Resort (Chengde City, Hebei Province), the
Thatched Cottage of Tang Poet Du Fu (Chengdu City, Sichuan Province), and the
Tianyi Pavilion (Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province). In 1996, the State Council
announced the fourth batch of national important cultural relics protection
units, numbering 250 and bringing the total to 750. There are 99 national
historical and cultural cities. In 1995, the UNESCO placed on the World Heritage
List the Potala Palace in Tibet, the Mountain Summer Resort, together with its
adjacent temples in Chengde City, Hebei Province, the Confucius Temple, the
Confucius Family Mansion and the Confucius Woods in Qufu City, Shandong
Province, and the ancient architectural complex on Mount Wudang in Hubei
Province.
The planned scientific excavation of cultural relics has
laid a good foundation for the improvement of archeological theory and practice,
and research into ancient Chinese history. Aeronautical, underwater and desert
archeological studies have provided important historical information and data
for economic construction, and new techniques of and approaches to the
development of cultural relics protection.
In recent years, China has been taking an unprecedentedly active part in foreign
exchanges and cooperation in terms of cultural relics. About 150 cultural relics
exhibitions have been held in the U.S., Argentina, France, Britain, Germany,
Italy, Denmark, Japan, Republic of Korea, Australia, and Singapore. The
Exhibition of Tombs of Chinese Emperors held in the U.S., the Exhibition of
Tibetan Treasures and the Exhibition of the Yellow River Civilization held in
Italy, and the Exhibition of Laolan.s Cultural Relics and the Exhibition of the
Terracotta Legion of the First Qin Emperor held in Japan presented the splendors
of the great ancient Chinese civilization to large and appreciative audience.
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