The Forbidden City, once off-limits to ordinary
citizens and foreigners, will host a British history exhibition
starting Friday.
The exhibition, named "Britain Meets the World 1714-1830," will
be held at the Palace Museum in Beijing from March 9 to June
10.
The exhibition will explore Britain's engagement with the world
during the Georgian period when the nation was emerging as an
international power.
The three-month exhibition will showcase 111 artifacts from the
British Museum, including paintings by Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and
Raphael, many of which have never been exhibited outside of the
British islands.
The Palace Museum will also display 13 of its own collections
during the exhibition.
It is the first time the Palace Museum and the British Museum
have co-curated an exhibition.
The Forbidden City, which became a museum in 1925, houses a
collection of over 1.5 million artifacts, mainly from the ancient
imperial court.
The labyrinthine complex, home to 24 emperors, their families
and courtesans, and reputed to have 9,999 rooms, is one of China's
best known icons and most popular tourist attractions. It is
visited by 7 to 8 million tourists every year.
UNESCO listed the Forbidden City as a World Cultural Heritage Site in 1987.
(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2007)
