Museum displays rich history, culture of city

A visit to the Nanjing Museum has given foreign journalists - who toured Jiangsu province last month - a good opportunity to learn about the history of the city and the province through the exhibition of historic relics from past dynasties.

Nanjing, which literally means "southern capital", was the ancient capital of six imperial dynasties.

Founded in 1933, the museum has six exhibition areas, exhibiting relics such as bronze vessels, jade, ceramics and calligraphy.

In its history exhibition area, there is a jade dress sewn with gold wire. It was made in the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) and was unearthed in Xuzhou city in Jiangsu province.

The dress was made of more 2,600 pieces of jade, weighing about 800 grams and lined with brocade along its edges.

"I come from Japan; I am interested in Chinese history as I think Japan's history was influenced by China," said Mikako Yokoyama, a staff writer of Japan's Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.

"I am very impressed by the dress, for it may have a lot of meanings in the Chinese culture," she said.

According to the rules of the Han Dynasty, a jade dress sewn with gold wire was specifically used to cover the body of a dead king. Thus, it provides the most important material proof to identify the status of the person buried in the tomb.

Other exhibits include a replica of the arched door of the porcelain pagoda in Nanjing's Grand Bao'en Temple. The real pagoda was built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

The arched door is known as the most beautiful door in Nanjing, decorated with a golden-winged roc bird on the top, and on both sides, gods and animals including dragons, lions, sheep and elephants.

The porcelain pagoda was built under the order of Emperor Yongle during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), representing the high level of imperial architecture during that period.

Elena Protchenko, a journalist from the Beijing office of the United Emirates-based ChinaArab TV, said she now lives in Beijing and is enchanted by its cultural relics in the Palace Museum.

"I have been to Nanjing and visited the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, which leaves me a great impression of the city," she said.

"The exhibits in the Nanjing Museum bring a strong sense to feel the city's rich history."

Located at the south foot of Zijin Mountain and to the northern side of Zhongshan Gate, Nanjing Museum covers a floor area of more than 70,000 square meters. It has more than 40,000 collections.