This Spring Festival holiday, many people traveled to Beijing, many of them came to the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was built during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty and has a history of 603 years, and the Palace Museum was officially established in 1925, and it has a history of 98 years today. The Palace Museum, which has been established for nearly a hundred years, will soon have a branch.
Not long ago, on December 30, 2022, the North Branch of the Palace Museum, which has been preparing for nearly ten years, officially broke ground. The project is located in Xiyuhe Village, Xibeiwang Town, Haidian District, in the northwestern suburbs of Beijing. The south side is facing the water, and the north side is stacked with mountains, with a construction area of more than 100,000 square meters. It is more than 30 kilometers from the Palace Museum, and it takes about an hour's drive.
The Forbidden City covers an area of more than 700,000 square meters
Why build branches
The Palace Museum is the largest ancient building complex in mainland China, and also the largest and most complete preserved wooden palace complex in the world, covering an area of 720,000 square meters, with more than 70 large and small palaces and more than 9,000 houses. Friends who have been there know that the Forbidden City is so big that you can't finish walking around it for a day. Since it is so big, why build a branch?
Du Haijiang, Secretary of the Party Committee and Vice President of the Palace Museum, and General Manager of the North Courtyard of the Palace Museum: The number of cultural relics exhibited by the Palace Museum is less than 10,000 every year, but after the completion of the North Campus, we can exhibit 20,000 to 30,000 cultural relics every year.
It is understood that at present, the Palace Museum has a total of 1863404 cultural relics, and after the completion of the North Courtyard of the Palace Museum, the exhibition conditions will be fundamentally improved and enhanced.
Du Haijiang: Many of our cultural relics in the past were exhibited in the Forbidden City, such as calligraphy and painting, which have seasons, cannot be displayed in the rainy season, cannot be displayed in winter, and cannot be exhibited in summer, because calligraphy and painting have higher requirements for temperature and humidity. There are many silk and cotton artifacts that are not on display, because the environment in which it is exhibited is not enough, the conditions are not enough. A modern museum must be established to display these more than 1.8 million artifacts. After the completion of the new museum, there are 12 exhibition halls, about 35,000 square meters of exhibition hall area.
The cultural relics are exhibited outside the North Courtyard of the Forbidden City
What other features will be available
The architecture of the Palace Museum itself is a cultural relic. Unlike museums, many spaces are not suitable for exhibition halls, so that a considerable number of cultural relics are difficult to meet the public. When the north courtyard of the Forbidden City is completed, it will solve this problem very well. In addition to exhibiting cultural relics, what other functions will the North Courtyard of the Forbidden City under construction have?
Du Haijiang: There are too many things carried by the Palace Museum, and in the ancient buildings of the Forbidden City, we still have many (ancient buildings) working in them, and many (ancient buildings) have become warehouses, which are some unsafe factors. In fact, the construction of the North Campus is one of the biggest factors to solve the safety of the hospital, including the safety of cultural relics and ancient buildings, the safety of visitors, and the safety of movable cultural relics.
The Forbidden City is the first batch of world cultural heritage sites on the mainland, with a history of 603 years, and every palace, every inch of land, and every flower and plant is the carrier of historical and cultural inheritance. At present, the open area of the Forbidden City accounts for about 75% of the total area, and the completion of the North Courtyard of the Forbidden City will maximize the ancient building space occupied by offices and cultural relics storage in the Forbidden City. At the same time, many of the requirements for temperature, humidity, light and other conditions are high, need to prevent insects, moth, anti-oxidation, and even need to be placed in special gas cultural relics, the newly built North Courtyard of the Forbidden City can also provide better storage conditions.
Du Haijiang: It must have a modern warehouse, and in the construction of the North Campus project, we have fully considered the construction of the warehouse. It does not mean that all the cultural relics of the hospital are moved to the north courtyard, so the two warehouses each store different cultural relics according to the requirements of their own environmental conditions.
The traditional craftsmanship techniques of the restoration of cultural relics in the Forbidden City are the most complete in the country, among which "Ancient Calligraphy and Painting Framing Restoration Technique", "Ancient Calligraphy and Painting Artificial Copying and Reproduction Technique", and "Chinese Bronze Traditional Restoration and Reproduction Technique" are all national intangible cultural heritage.
Du Haijiang: It should be said that this cultural relics hospital is still very advanced, but there are two problems that cannot be solved now, the number of one restoration is still limited, and we can only restore a few hundred cultural relics every year. The second important thing is that some large cultural relics cannot be restored here (the Palace Museum).
The restoration and research of cultural relics is one of the important responsibilities of the Forbidden City, and the completion of the North Courtyard will not only provide a large space, but also equip the restoration of large-scale cultural relics with corresponding lifting equipment and provide special guarantees such as special passages. In addition, friends who are interested in cultural relics restoration can also have relevant experiences in the north courtyard of the Forbidden City in the future.
Du Haijiang: Not only do we know the results of the restoration of cultural relics, but also let the audience see the process of restoring cultural relics, to experience our craftsmanship, to experience exquisite craftsmanship, it is more open than this institute.
Coordinates: Xiyuhe Village
What is the special attention to the location of the North Courtyard of the Forbidden City
The North Campus is located in Xiyuhe Village, Xibeiwang Town, Haidian District, Beijing, more than 30 kilometers away from the Palace Museum. So, what is the importance of choosing the location of the North Courtyard of the Forbidden City?
Du Haijiang: This location is a very special location, its place name is Cuijia Kiln, there are three kiln sites, this is the Qing Dynasty kiln site, this kiln used to make bricks, tiles, glass components, etc. for the Forbidden City, so it is an important raw material production base of the Forbidden City in the past, and it reflects the three mountains and five gardens in Haidian District.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were also many royal leisure spaces outside the Forbidden City. The so-called Three Mountains and Five Gardens refer to Xiangshan, Yuquan Mountain, Wanshou Mountain, Changchun Garden, Yuanmingyuan, Qingyi Garden, Jingmingyuan and Jingyi Garden, all within the scope of today's Haidian District of Beijing.
What is the head of the North Courtyard District
Will it be a replica of the Forbidden City
The relevant person in charge introduced that the total land area of the Forbidden City North Courtyard project is 11.56 hectares, and the total construction area is 102,000 square meters. The overall building faces the water in the south and the mountains in the north, and the gold-roofed building forms an axis, as the center of the entire building volume, and the elements of the Forbidden City with red walls and yellow tiles are highlighted. The North Campus District plans to build a cultural relics exhibition center, a cultural relics restoration center, a cultural relics exhibition hall, a cultural relics turnover warehouse, and a palace horticultural center, and will set up an international cultural relics restoration platform and an intangible cultural heritage studio.
Du Haijiang: The North Campus project does not adopt the model of moving the ancient building style of the Forbidden City directly, it is a modern museum, borrowing some elements of the Forbidden City, and after completion, it should be said that it is a simple, thick and atmospheric museum.
The general person in charge of the project introduced that at present, the North Courtyard of the Palace Museum is stepping up construction, and strives to use three years to fully complete it in 2025, when the 100th anniversary of the Palace Museum is established.
Source: New Evening News, CCTV News
Editor: Shanxi Evening News All Media Editor Qin Xiaoqian
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