The National Museum of China recently opened the regular exhibition State Gifts: Historical Testament to Friendly Exchanges.

The exhibition presents 611 gifts Chinese leaders have received during their diplomatic activities with 166 countries and international organizations since New China's 1949 founding.

The exhibits have been selected from more than 30,000 such gifts in the museum's permanent collection. Most are available for public viewing for the first time.

Those from New China's early years include a cast-iron sculpture, titled Taming a Horse, presented to Mao Zedong by workers at the Soviet Union's Ural Heavy Machinery Factory in February 1950 and a pair of porcelain swans US president Richard Nixon presented Mao in February 1972.

Among the latest state gifts on show are a jade goddess statue, given to Chinese President Hu Jintao by Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni in August 2005 and a blue-and-white porcelain pot Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin gave Hu in June 2012.

"These gifts are a testament to the brilliant success of our country's diplomacy over the past 60-plus years and an expression of the friendly feelings between Chinese people and the peoples of other countries," museum director Lu Zhangshen says.

"(They) also reflect the diverse and unique cultures and arts of different countries and are of tremendous historical significance and artistic value."

9 am-5 pm daily, except Mondays and public holidays. Exhibition Hall 18, 3/F, North Area, National Museum of China, 16 East Chang'an Dajie, Dongcheng district, Beijing. 010-6511-6400.

- Zhu Linyong