Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, on Thursday visited The Road Toward Rejuvenation exhibition in Beijing, pledging to continue targeting the goal of "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."

Xi made the comments as he viewed the exhibition, on display in the National Museum of China, along with other members of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau including Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli.

During his time at the attraction, Xi went through the exhibition halls one by one, carefully examining the exhibits and listening to explanations made by staff members of the museum, which houses a large number of historic pictures, charts, material goods and videos on Chinese history since the First Opium War (1840-42).

Xi stopped in front of some exhibits on major historical events in the 19th century, including charts illustrating how the West had occupied China's territories, established concessions and drew up spheres of influence; the cannons installed at the fortifications of Humen in Guangdong during the Opium Wars; materials and pictures on the 1911 Revolution that overthrew China's last feudalistic regime of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

The Party leader also studied the first Chinese version of the Communist Manifesto, material exhibits and photos relating to the founding of the CPC in 1921, the autobiography of one of CPC founders Li Dazhao, the first national flag of the People's Republic of China, and photos on the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee at which Deng Xiaoping and his comrades launched the epoch-making reform and opening up drive.

Making a keynote speech during his visit, the general secretary described The Road Toward Rejuvenation as a retrospective on the Chinese nation, a celebration of its present and a declaration on its future.

Citing a sentence from one of Mao Zedong's poems, "The strong pass is a wall of iron is but an idle boast," Xi said the Chinese nation had suffered unusual hardship and sacrifice in the world's modern history.

"But the Chinese people have never given in, have struggled ceaselessly, and have finally taken hold of our own destiny and started the great process of building our nation," he emphasized. "It has displayed, in full, the great national spirit with patriotism as the core."

Talking about China today, Xi borrowed another sentence from Mao's poems, "But man's world is mutable, seas become mulberry fields," referring to the country's hard-earned finding of a correct road toward its rejuvenation and remarkable achievements since the launch of the reform and opening up. "It is the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics," he stressed.

Xi also cited a poetic sentence from Li Bai, one of the best-known ancient Chinese poets, "I will mount a long wind some day and break the heavy waves." It indicates that, after more than 170 years of hard struggle since the Opium War, the Chinese nation has bright prospects, is closer than ever to reaching its goal of great rejuvenation, and is more confident and capable of reaching that goal.