News Updates From Around the Country

National Treasures on Display in Hong Kong

More than 300 priceless relics currently on display at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum will continue to be exhibited until June 10. The items, on public view since March, are largely focused on the artistic and cultural changes that took place in China during the Eastern Han to High Tang dynasties (AD25-755).

Titled From Eastern Han to High Tang: A Journey of Transculturation, the exhibition is jointly presented by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and Hong Kong's Leisure and Cultural Services Department. It was organized by Hong Kong's Heritage Museum and Art Exhibitions China, and sponsored by the Tsui Art Foundation.

The cultural relics were selected from 46 museums and cultural institutions in 14 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. Many of these national treasures are grade-one relics from the most significant archaeological discoveries in the past 50 years.

They include ancient wooden objects from the Han dynasty; pottery guardian figures and Buddhist sculptures of the Northern dynasties; porcelain ware of the Southern dynasties; and items imported from Western Asia and beyond, such as glassware, gold and silverware and gold coins.

West Lake Museum to Open in Autumn

The West Lake Museum in the historic eastern China city of Hangzhou, the first of its kind in China, is expected to open in October, according to a Hangzhou-based newspaper.

Local Commercial Daily said construction of the museum, which will display West Lake's history and culture, was recently completed, and about 200 cultural relics and more than 2,000 documents related to the lake have been collected by the museum.

The newspaper said that this year, Hangzhou Municipal Government plans to invest 150 million yuan (US$18 million) on protecting its plentiful collection of historic relics.

Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province on south-eastern China's coast, was one of China's famous seven ancient capitals with a history of more than 2,200 years. The city's fame rests mainly on picturesque West Lake on its western fringe. With an area of about six square kilometers, the lake is surrounded by three isles - Lesser Yingzhou, Mid-lake Pavilion and Ruangong Isle. The area is one of China's leading scenic attractions.

More Cliff Paintings Found in NW China

Seventy-two cliff paintings were recently discovered at Helan Mountain in north-west China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region during a general survey on cliff paintings in the region.

The paintings, in 28 groups, are of sheep, deer, horses, tigers, donkeys and human faces. The works are spread over a 15-square-kilometer area between Helankou and Chaqikou.

"This is the largest group of cliff paintings discovered in the past three years," said He Jide, director of the Helan Mountain Cliff Painting Administrative Section in Yinchuan, the regional capital.

The mountain's cliff paintings are prehistoric cultural relics carved with stone and metal tools by nomads from northern China. They show scenes of herding, hunting, sacrificial offerings, and aspects of daily life 3,000 to 10,000 years ago. Animals dominate the paintings, followed by human figures, vehicles of the times, plants, planets, fingerprints, written characters and abstract signs.

Prior to the discovery, 19,752 cliff paintings in 5,098 groups had been found at Helan Mountain, once a nomadic area. The works provide valuable evidence for the study of the history of human development, ethnic religions and primitive painting, said He Jide.