Tianjin, May 17 (Xinhua) -- In Tianjin's Fifth Avenue Cultural Tourism Zone, which has beautiful scenery and profound historical heritage, a three-story European-style building with red walls and white windows is "hidden" in the bustling city, surrounded by green trees, low-key and simple, and has a unique sense of tranquility of "hidden in the city".
This is the Northern Xinjiang Museum, the predecessor of the Tianjin Museum of Natural History, and one of the earliest natural history museums in China. Because of its rich and unique collection and fruitful academic achievements, it has become a landmark project for cultural exchanges and mutual learning between China and France.
Zhang Caixin, director of Tianjin Natural History Museum (Northern Xinjiang Museum), introduced that the Northern Xinjiang Museum is the only museum in the early days of mainland China that has completely preserved the original site, original building, original collection, original display case, and original historical documents, which can be called a "living fossil" in the history of Chinese museums.
This year coincides with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France and the Sino-French Year of Culture and Tourism, and the museum has welcomed more guests from France. They admired the giant taxidermy in the glass display case in the showroom, took photos from time to time, and were surprised by the richness of the collection, and at the same time, they also sighed that the founder of the museum was a true Frenchman.
Sang Zhihua is next to the Northern Xinjiang Museum. Xinhua News Agency
A hundred years ago, the French naturalist Sang Zhihua came to China to carry out scientific expeditions and establish the Northern Xinjiang Museum.
"For 25 years, he traveled all over the northern territory of China, which is also the origin of the name 'Northern Xinjiang Museum'." Lu Xuan, a docent who has worked in the Northern Xinjiang Museum for 10 years, pointed to a hand-drawn map on the wall of Sang Zhihua's former residence, which was densely marked with the routes and footprints of previous Sang Zhihua's scientific expeditions.
"There are more than 400,000 fossils and specimens of animals and plants, geology, rock and minerals, paleontology, and ancient humans, among which there are more than 110,000 insect specimens alone." Lu Xuan introduced.
Standing in front of the Northern Xinjiang Museum, the breath of history is blowing in your face. Passing through a green iron door, a large and bright exhibition hall comes into view. Looking up, a well-preserved fossilized saber-toothed elephant skull hangs above the roof in the middle of the foyer, and a pair of tusks four or five meters long is very spectacular. In the floor-to-ceiling glass display case below, there are fossils of ancient Chinese bison, Bryde's true horned deer, woolly rhinoceros and Wang's buffalo...... All kinds of large-scale paleontological fossils and geological collections are neatly arranged, forming a curtain wall containing ancient life codes.
Walking around, when encountering many specimens and artifacts that have gone through a century of history, people seem to be able to start a dialogue with scientists a hundred years ago across time and space.
The restored workbench of Sang Zhihua in the Northern Xinjiang Museum. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Yuqi
The first to organize large-scale field excavations in China, the first to discover large-scale paleomammals in China, and the first to discover paleolithic tools in China...... Sang Zhihua's many achievements have created a precedent for the study of mammalogy and paleolithic archaeology in China, making the Northern Xinjiang Museum a golden scientific and cultural business card of China, and constantly adding pages to the world's "life history book".
Based on a huge, complete, unique and highly valuable collection system, the Northern Xinjiang Museum has become a temple of science and a world-renowned academic research exchange center. It has communicated with many Chinese and foreign museums and scientific research institutions such as the French National Museum of Natural History and the London Museum of Natural History, and jointly organized scientific research activities and exchanged collections.
Many international scholars have also traveled thousands of miles to the ancient country of the East to see the style of this museum. The Northern Xinjiang Museum has witnessed the history of openness and inclusiveness, friendly exchanges and mutual learning between China and France, and has played a role in Sino-French cultural exchanges. This year marks the 110th anniversary of the founding of the Northern Xinjiang Museum, and the museum has prepared a series of activities to help strengthen international cultural exchanges and mutual learning.