Palace Museum Opens Its New Porcelain Hall
Updated: 2009-02-16 17:12
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The Palace Museum’s Chinese porcelain collection is known for its chronological continuity, completeness in type, large quantity, consummate quality and authenticity, seeing no rivalsjrom the rest of the world.
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The museum opened its exhibition hall on porcelain in the 1950s and the hall underwent large-scale facelift twice in 1985 and 1995 respectively. After being closed for 4 years for restoration the porcelain hall was reopened to public with brand new appearance on July 15, 2008.
The revamped porcelain hall covers a floor space of 1,770 square kilometers and 441 pieces of antique exhibits in 427 sets are on display, among which 160 pieces are classified as first-class national-level objects, These exhibits are accompanied by photo explanations and catalogues are published to make these valuable objects accessible to more people, The 441 pieces are selected from nearly 350,000 pieces of the ceramic collection of the Palace Museum, dating back from the Neolithic Age to the modern time and covering almost all types of Chinese ceramics.
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The new porcelain hall is located in Wenhua Hall in the Forbidden City. First built during the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Wenhua Hall was originally used as a venue where the crown prince studied and handled court affairs, The hall was rebuilt in 1536 and became a ceremonial venue for emperors, The extant constructions were rebuilt in 1683, In 1894, in celebration of her 60th birthday Empress Cixi received letters of credence from foreign diplomatic envoys.