National Museum of China 国博

Welcome, everyone. Thank you for joining us at the National Museum of China on the east side of Tiananmen Square. Here's how we'll spend our time today: we'll start on the basement level with "Ancient China," move up to the second floor for "The Road to Rejuvenation" and the other core exhibitions, then head up to the fourth floor, where we'll work through the thematic galleries in this order — porcelain, jade, coins, bronze mirrors, Buddhist sculpture, costume, food culture, the Rhinoceros Zun digital gallery, Qing dynasty calligraphy and painting, and finally the wax figures. We'll focus on the highlights throughout.

Let's start with a quick introduction to the museum itself. The National Museum of China sits at 16 East Chang'an Avenue, directly east of Tiananmen Square. Its floor area is 191,900 square meters, making it the largest single-building museum in the world. The collection holds more than 1.4 million artifacts. The museum has two permanent core exhibitions — "Ancient China" and "The Road to Rejuvenation" — and we'll begin with the most essential one: "Ancient China."

We're now on the basement level in the "Ancient China" exhibition — the best possible starting point for understanding Chinese civilization. The gallery is arranged chronologically across eight sections: the Prehistoric Period, the Xia-Shang-Western Zhou Period, the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period, the Qin-Han Period, the Three Kingdoms through Northern and Southern Dynasties Period, the Sui-Tang and Five Dynasties Period, the Liao-Song-Xia-Jin-Yuan Period, and finally the Ming-Qing Period — spanning more than five thousand years of Chinese history in a single unbroken sequence.

There are several of the museum's most prized treasures here. Let's go through them one by one. The heaviest is the Houmuwu Ding from the late Shang dynasty — weighing 832.84 kilograms, it is the heaviest known bronze vessel in existence. Its inner wall bears the inscription "Si Mu Wu," identifying it as a ritual vessel offered in honor of a queen mother. Beside it, the Four-Ram Square Zun, also from the late Shang dynasty, has a ram cast at each of its four corners and is one of the finest examples of Shang bronze craftsmanship. Next, look at the Hongshan Jade Dragon from the Neolithic period — carved in the round from a single piece of jade, its body coiled in a fluid curve. It has been called the "First Dragon of China" and is a key witness to the origins of Chinese civilization. Then there is the Sanxingdui Bronze Mask from the late Shang dynasty, unearthed at the Sanxingdui site in Sichuan Province — its wide, blade-like eyes convey the religious awe of the ancient Shu people. Last, the Phoenix Crown of Empress Xiaoduan from the Ming dynasty is set with 115 rubies and 4,414 pearls — the pinnacle of imperial court jewelry-making. From stone tools to ritual bronzes, from terracotta figures to ceramic vessels, from gold and silver to jade — each object is a portrait of its age. Once you've taken in "Ancient China," we'll move on to the modern story told in "The Road to Rejuvenation."

We've now reached "The Road to Rejuvenation." If "Ancient China" told the story of a glorious past, this exhibition tells the story of how China has searched for a path forward since 1840. The whole exhibition uses more than 1,200 rare artifacts and historical documents to show how the Chinese people rose from humiliation and hardship to pursue national rejuvenation.

There are several particularly significant artifacts here — please take a close look. The first is the first Chinese translation of The Communist Manifesto, completed by Chen Wangdao in 1920. Notice the cover — the four characters of the title are printed in the wrong order, but every character carries enormous weight; this book marks the beginning of Marxism's spread in China. Next is the first Five-Star Red Flag raised at the founding ceremony of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949 — the red silk still bears the traces of time, a symbol of the birth of New China. There is also a pair of bronze animal heads — a rat and a rabbit — originally parts of the Haiyantang fountain in the Old Summer Palace, commissioned during the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty. They were returned to China in 2013 as a gift from the Pinault family of France, bearing witness to China's journey from humiliation to revival.

The exhibition also brings the story all the way up to the present. On display here is Lunar Sample No. 001, brought back by the Chang'e-5 mission in 2020 and weighing approximately 1,731 grams. There are also fragments of the Shenzhou-5 return capsule from Yang Liwei's 2003 spaceflight — China's first crewed mission. Beyond these, the exhibition features a scene reconstruction of the Humen Opium Destruction, artifacts from the Revolution of 1911, and rare historical materials from the War of Resistance Against Japan and the War of Liberation — viewed from start to finish, it adds up to a complete modern history of China. With the two core exhibitions behind us, let's head upstairs to the thematic galleries on the fourth floor.

Before we head up to the fourth floor, let's take in a few of the thematic exhibitions right here on the second floor — they're well worth the stop.

First, the central hall on the second floor: "The Power of Science and Technology" — the museum's first large-scale exhibition dedicated to the full history of Chinese science and technology. Its scope runs from astronomical records inscribed on Shang dynasty oracle bones all the way to the Micius quantum science experiment satellite, organized across four sections: "Investigating Nature," "Exploitation of the Works of Nature," "The Eastern Encounter with the West," and "Toward Rejuvenation." The exhibition includes more than 400 artifacts and objects (in sets) and over 50 models. A few things to look for in particular: a bronze clepsydra that controlled the rise of a float-arrow through water-level changes and was accurate to the minute; Lunar Sample No. 001 returned by Chang'e-5; Shenzhou-5 return capsule fragments; and models of ancient astronomical instruments such as the armillary sphere and seismoscope. From the Four Great Inventions to contemporary spaceflight, the exhibition draws a single unbroken line through the history of Chinese science.

Just next door, in the Central West Hall on the second floor, is "Standing in the East" — a fine art exhibition that tells the story of revolution through iconic works. The centrepiece is Dong Xiwen's oil painting Founding Ceremony, depicting the historic moment of October 1, 1949, when the People's Republic of China was proclaimed. Also on display: Flag No. 100, used at Tiananmen Square during the 2021 centenary celebrations of the founding of the Communist Party of China; a national flag flown aboard Shenzhou-6 and displayed when the spacecraft passed over the South Pole; a flag raised by Wang Jicai and his wife during their years guarding Kaishan Island; the first national emblem; and the first official seal of the Central People's Government.

In the central hall, "Red Flags" is the museum's exhibition of classic revolutionary artifacts, bringing together more than 60 items — red flags, Party flags, and revolutionary artworks. The collection includes the first Five-Star Red Flag ever raised at Tiananmen Square; Flag No. 100 from the Party's centenary celebrations; 100 high-resolution photographs of the national flag from the new era; and the first-ever display of the national flag using naked-eye 3D technology, recreating the story of the Five-Star Red Flag's creation and design.

Finally, the last stop on the second floor: Galleries North 1 and North 2, home to "China White — Blanc de Chine from Dehua." Dehua white porcelain from Fujian Province is renowned for being "white as snow, clear as a mirror, thin as paper, and resonant as a chime," earning it the international designation blanc de chine. The exhibition includes both traditional works — porcelain sculpture, porcelain panel paintings, porcelain vases — and modern innovations: Princess Yusu from the series Mythology, which blends traditional craft with contemporary design; a porcelain sheet that mimics the texture of xuan paper; a Swan Lake rendered in white porcelain echoing a Western artistic classic; and an elegant Ballet dancer figure. Dehua white porcelain once traveled the Maritime Silk Road to markets across Europe and Asia, making it a living witness to ancient China's international trade and cultural exchange. With the second floor behind us, let's head up to the fourth floor.

We've arrived at Gallery North 17 on the fourth floor — "Ancient Chinese Porcelain." This exhibition draws more than three hundred representative masterpieces from the museum's collection, arranged across four sections: "A Deep and Distant Heritage," "The Potter's Art and Vision," "The Elegance of Porcelain," and "Porcelain Travels the World." Together they trace the full journey of Chinese ceramics, from primitive proto-porcelain to fully mature ceramic art, and from the great regional kilns to the dazzling refinements of later dynasties.

Let's look at a few of the representative works. First, a Three Kingdoms-period celadon tiger-shaped vessel (hu zi) — 12.3 cm tall, 3.8 cm in mouth diameter, 4.9 cm in foot diameter, with a vivid and lifelike form. Next, a Tang dynasty sancai glazed terracotta camel with musicians — a camel bearing a group of musicians on its back, a perfect emblem of the cosmopolitan, open-spirited Tang. The Song dynasty Ding-ware white porcelain child-shaped pillow — 17.5 cm tall, 22.8 cm long, 10.8 cm wide — is modeled as a small child reclining on its side, and is utterly charming. Yuan dynasty blue-and-white porcelain is represented by pieces of great technical refinement and vivid color. Moving forward in time, there are blue-and-white wares from the Yongle and Xuande reigns of the Ming dynasty, and enamel-painted and famille rose imperial kiln pieces from the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong reigns of the Qing dynasty. It's worth pausing to think: porcelain was one of China's most important export goods in the ancient world, shipped to destinations across Europe and Asia — a fact preserved in the English language itself, where the word "china" means both the country and the material. When you're ready, we'll move next door to the jade gallery.

We're now in Gallery North 19 on the fourth floor — "Ancient Chinese Jade Art." In ancient China, jade was described as the most beautiful of stones, and it held a place of the highest prestige. Jade objects served as ritual implements and as embodiments of moral ideals and spiritual belief.

The centerpiece of this gallery is another "First Dragon of China" — the Hongshan Jade Dragon. Unearthed at Saiqin Tala in Wengniute Banner, Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, it measures 26.3 cm long, 29.3 cm wide, and 2.5 cm thick, and is carved from dark green Xiuyan jade. Its head has an elongated snout and refined eyes; the entire body coils into the shape of the letter C — a masterpiece of Neolithic jade carving. A few more pieces to note: a Shang dynasty dragon-shaped jade pendant — 15 cm long and 8 cm wide — of warm, lustrous jade; a Warring States period jade disc (bi) with interlaced dragon and tiger motifs, 25 cm in diameter; a Han dynasty jade burial suit assembled from thousands of jade plaques linked with gold wire, one of the defining artifacts of Han funerary culture; and a Tang dynasty twin-dragon jade pendant — 12 cm long and 7 cm wide — with fluid, graceful lines. Taken together, this sequence from the Neolithic period to the Tang dynasty traces the full arc of China's jade culture. With jade behind us, let's move on to coins and bronze mirrors.

Our first stop is Gallery South 11 on the fourth floor — "Ancient Chinese Coins." This exhibition walks through the complete history of Chinese coinage from start to finish: from the knife coins and spade coins of the pre-Qin period, to the wuzhu coins of the Qin-Han era, to the kaiyuan tongbao and xiantong yuanbao of the Tang and Song, and on to the cast coins of the Ming and Qing. As soon as you walk in, look up at the "Coins from All Directions" coin wall — assembled from thousands of coins spanning different dynasties and forms, it gives you an instant, vivid sense of how rich China's monetary history truly is. A few key coins to keep in mind: the Warring States knife and spade coins, which reflect the different monetary systems of the pre-Qin regional states; the Qin banliang coin, introduced by Qin Shi Huang after he unified the six states — China's very first nationally standardized currency; the Han dynasty wuzhu coin, finely cast and in wide circulation for centuries; and the Tang dynasty kaiyuan tongbao, elegantly designed and representing the pinnacle of coinage of its day.

Next, Gallery South 14 on the fourth floor: "A Thousand Years Reflected — Ancient Chinese Bronze Mirror Culture." Bronze mirrors in the ancient world were at once everyday objects for personal grooming, works of decorative craft, and carriers of cultural meaning. This gallery contains one remarkable national treasure — a Sui dynasty green glass lidded jar, unearthed in 1957 from the tomb of Li Jinxun in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. It stands 4.3 cm tall, with a mouth diameter of 2.8 cm, and is entirely transparent and luminously green, made using a high-lead glass technique. It is a Class-One cultural relic and is forbidden from leaving China. Among the bronze mirrors themselves: a Tang dynasty mirror decorated with a pair of luan birds and a pair of phoenixes, 20.5 cm in diameter; a Han dynasty cloud-and-thunder pattern mirror, 18 cm in diameter, clean and elegant in its simplicity; a Song dynasty floral mirror, 15 cm in diameter, with a refined decorative pattern; and a Qing dynasty Eight Trigrams mirror, 22 cm in diameter, its reverse bearing the bagua as a symbol of traditional Chinese philosophical thought. The decorative patterns on these mirrors are a record of each era's aesthetic sensibilities. With coins and bronze mirrors behind us, let's head to the Buddhist sculpture gallery.

We're now in Gallery South 13 on the fourth floor — "Ancient Chinese Buddhist Sculpture." This exhibition presents a systematic display of 236 Buddhist sculptural works of art. The collection encompasses both pieces created in China and works transmitted from ancient India and other regions: clay Buddhist figures unearthed in Xinjiang, carvings from the Yungang Grottoes, bodhisattva images from the Tianlong Mountain Grottoes, guardian king statues from Wanfo Temple in Sichuan Province, wooden Guanyin figures, gilt-bronze Guanyin images, and Tibetan Buddhist sculptures from the Ming and Qing imperial courts.

Moving through the gallery in chronological order, you can clearly trace the step-by-step process by which Buddhist art took root in China and became its own. The Yungang Grottoes carvings from the Northern Wei period are bold and monumental — the workmanship is extraordinary. By the Tang dynasty, the wooden seated Guanyin is compassionate in expression and graceful in posture, clearly more humanized and accessible than its predecessors. The Song dynasty polychrome wooden Guanyin bodhisattva head is vivid in color and lively in expression — the style has grown intricate and refined. The Yuan dynasty gilt-bronze Buddha is technically magnificent and richly decorated, bearing the unmistakable hallmarks of Tibetan Buddhist tradition. The Ming dynasty polychrome wooden Maitreya Buddha is grand in scale and solemn in bearing. Taken piece by piece, this gallery is a brief history of Buddhism's transformation in China. With Buddhist sculpture behind us, let's move on to the costume and food culture galleries — two exhibitions with a much more intimate, everyday feel.

Our first stop is Gallery North 18 on the fourth floor — "Ancient Chinese Costume Culture." In the ancient world, clothing was never just clothing — it was a declaration of identity, rank, and social standing. One artifact here never fails to stop people in their tracks: the Han dynasty plain gauze robe (su sha chan yi) — light as a cicada's wing, thin as paper, and weighing just 49 grams in its entirety — a testament to the extraordinary skill of Han dynasty weavers. Also on display is a Sui dynasty gold necklace inlaid with pearls and gemstones, unearthed from the tomb of Li Jinxun: 43 cm long and weighing 91.25 grams, it consists of 28 gold spherical links, each formed by soldering 12 small gold rings together and set with 10 pearls — the pinnacle of Sui dynasty jewelry-making. Further highlights include a Tang dynasty sancai glazed terracotta camel with musicians, embodying the cosmopolitan spirit of the Tang; a Tang dynasty twin-handled dragon vase of elegant design; and a Qing dynasty hardwood screen approximately 2 meters tall and 1.5 meters wide, decorated with a sea-wave and cloud-dragon pattern.

Next, Gallery North 11 on the fourth floor: "Ancient Chinese Food Culture." This exhibition is divided into five units — "Food from All Directions," "The Fragrance of Tea and Wine," "A Treasury of Fine Vessels," "Transformations in the Cauldron," and "Rites Begin at the Table" — with more than 240 carefully selected artifacts and objects (in sets). The most fascinating group is the Tang dynasty dumplings and pastries unearthed at Turfan in Xinjiang — preserved intact for over a thousand years, they are living proof of the culinary exchange between East and West along the Silk Road. Other highlights include a finely crafted Han dynasty lacquer ear-cup, representative of elite drinking vessels of the era; a complete set of Song dynasty celadon tea ware, reflecting the flourishing of tea culture in the Song; exquisitely decorated Qing dynasty enamel-painted porcelain; and scale models of ancient kitchens, cooking implements, and tableware. Vessels, ingredients, cooking techniques, dining ritual — every dimension of the Chinese table is covered. With these two galleries behind us, let's head to the most high-tech stop of the day: the Rhinoceros Zun digital gallery, followed by the Qing dynasty calligraphy and painting exhibition.

Our first stop here is Gallery North 16 on the fourth floor — "Telling the Story of the Rhinoceros Zun." This is the museum's first digital exhibition and first smart gallery, and it is built entirely around a single national treasure: the Western Han dynasty rhinoceros-shaped bronze zun inlaid with gold and silver cloud motifs.

Take a look at the zun itself — 23.5 cm long, 19.7 cm tall, and weighing 3.1 kilograms. Its body is covered all over with inlaid gold and silver cloud patterns, and the form is strikingly naturalistic — a pinnacle of Han bronze casting. There's a wonderful detail to know: when the zun was excavated in 1963, its belly was found to contain 17 other objects — a bronze mirror, a belt hook, a file, cowrie shells, and more — most of them items from the Western Han period. The gallery uses digital technology to examine the piece from every angle: a 3D-printed model is on display, and you can use the touchscreen to open the model's lid and explore the interior for yourself. Interactive projection installations also illuminate the casting and decorative techniques involved in its creation. There is one further significance to this object's discovery: it confirms that rhinoceroses, now on the brink of global extinction, once ranged widely across the Chinese landscape.

Next, Gallery South 12 on the fourth floor: "Ancient Chinese Calligraphy and Painting — Ink Treasures of Qing Dynasty Jinshi Scholars." This exhibition draws more than 70 carefully selected calligraphic works and fine rubbings from steles and model calligraphy books from the museum's collection, organized across four thematic sections: "Copying Steles and Models," "Imperial Commissions and Gifts," "Writing of Objects and Feelings," and "Official Documents and Personal Letters." The exhibits include works in running script, cursive script, and regular script by Qing dynasty jinshi (imperial examination graduates); fine block-printed editions of celebrated steles and model calligraphy books from the Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties; literati paintings on themes of landscape, figures, and birds and flowers; and manuscript poems, essays, and personal correspondence by Qing dynasty scholars. Reading through these brushstrokes, you get a genuine sense of the learning, sensibility, and daily life of educated men in imperial China. With these two galleries done, we're on to the last stop of the day.

Our final stop today is Gallery North 9 on the fourth floor — "National Museum of China Collection: Wax Figures of Heroes and Models."

This gallery brings together hyperrealistic wax sculptures of many outstanding individuals, reproducing not only their physical appearance but the spirit and character of each subject. You'll recognize many familiar faces here: Party and state leaders including Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Deng Xiaoping; scientists such as Qian Xuesen and Deng Jiaxian, key contributors to China's nuclear and space programs; and distinguished figures from across society, including Yuan Longping — the father of hybrid rice — and Li Suli, a celebrated national model worker. The exhibition also displays the complex craft of wax figure-making through actual materials and video, and each figure is accompanied by a panel recounting the subject's life story and historical contribution. Standing before these faces is a fitting way to close a day that has traveled through time and back again.

From the five-thousand-year sweep of "Ancient China" in the basement, to the modern story of "The Road to Rejuvenation," and then up to the fourth floor's sequence of porcelain, jade, coins, bronze mirrors, Buddhist sculpture, costume, food culture, and more — the National Museum of China has compressed the entire arc of Chinese civilization into a single building. As the largest single-building museum in the world, its collection of more than 1.4 million artifacts means that every object here is a witness to history. Thank you all for spending this time with us. We hope the National Museum of China has left you with something memorable. Safe travels, and until we meet again.