On Thursday, my Foreign Policy class took a field trip to China’s National Museum.  This museum located across the street from Tian’anmen Square is filled with China’s history from ancient times to the present day.  The building itself is massive.  I’ve never seen a building this large in my life.  I couldn’t even get the other two thirds of it in this picture!

My Foreign Policy professor served as our tour guide as we went through just one of the exhibits, The Road to Rejuvenation. It took us 3 hours to get through this one exhibit.  It told of China’s history from the fall of the last dynasty to the present day.

The exhibit began with an installation of clay covered walls which depicted some of China’s most influential events.  The longer I stared the more I recognized the carvings, from gun powder to The Three Gorges Dam.  The museum also had a lot of sculptures that looked like 3D paintings! Neat, huh?

As my professor took us through the museum, he repeatedly said this manuscript or that painting was a replica.  Apparently, other countries have stolen some of China’s important cultural artifacts which leaves museums having to create look-a-likes.  Although this is not uncommon in many countries, I found it almost humorous how many artifacts in this exhibit were not original.

My favorite part was getting to see the different designs that China considered for their current flag.

Since there are still 4 other exhibits at the museum, I will definitely return to explore the rest. As our group was leaving, I could not get over how massive the building was.  The ceilings were at least 3 stories high. I learned that it was recently renovated and the design for the lobby included a wall of windows to compensate for light fixtures.  Very modern!

It was special to visit China’s National Museum because next Tuesday is National Day in China.  This is the day in which the People’s Republic of China was established at Tian’anmen Square in 1949.  I have off of school on this day but most Chinese people will take a week long vacation starting on October 1st.  When we were exiting the museum, we got to see some pre-National Day celebrations including military marches.  I like this picture because it looks like the woman in the zebra print is the leader! We also saw large festival structures like this huge fruit/flower arrangement!

 

Oh China! Can’t wait to see more of the festivities on National Day!