Beijing 2024 - National Museum of China (中国国家博物馆) Ancient China Exhibition

 

We were still at the same wing of the building, the north wing, and it was already after lunch time. We have now reached the basement level, and by this time the museum was super crowded with people. They gave you an entry time slot, but once you're in you could stay as long as you like till closing time. Since the basement exhibit was about Ancient China, mainly culture and stuff, we just zoom by it so that we could quickly finish and head to the next wing. So here is just the highlights :p

Chinese costumes! So many of them! Different tribes and ethnic groups, different roles and position in society.

Typical scholar look, lol. Got to have those nice beard to recital poetry during a full moon!

Fabric exhibit, I only took those on dragons! They looked kinda like kimono cloth.....Very pretty!

Chinese seal! Royal seals! They were so huge and looked so heavy!

So much wordings carved into them! Almost like a whole poem? Yeah, feel free to zoom in to read the description.

Make up display! Lipsticks! Ah so elegant.

A painting of someone with full makeup on. Kinda Mulan cartoon-like too, right? And yes, I did fell in love with Chinese makeup products. They just looked so elegant. And surely every girl wants to be a princess in the royal court in their dreams! More details in future blog, but I did came back with a wooden comb and a facial cream from my trip to China! And I love both of them dearly!

Beijing 2024 - National Museum of China (中国国家博物馆) Portrait Exhibition

 

Here is a hall just filled with portraits of the royal family and people from the royal court. It would have been dull if it not for the cool display. Dark halls, and portraits all in similar colour scheme of red, gold, black and white and a touch of blue. 

With the lightings shinning on each portrait. Seriously, this could have been a very dull and dry hall, yet here I am, able to just post a dedicated post to it cause I love it. Maybe it's all those dark rooms that just made these pieces shine? Is there such a thing as display art? Maybe I could major in it. I love looking at them. Even advertisement window display, especially those of luxury brands. I love looking at them cause they too are art itself!

More royals. You get the idea. But always red. 

One of the emperor/empress. Note the cute dragon on her clothing. 

It's show in a pair.

The officials/eunuch. They are dressed in dark blue. Hmmm. Perhaps colours have hierarchy? These were from the 15th centuries. 

And these from the 16th. I've only ever seen these as costume in period movies, or Hong Kong vampire movies, lol. 

Beijing 2024 - National Museum of China (中国国家博物馆) Others Exhibition

While walking from one hall to another, or just casually crossing some corridors of the museum, there were also pieces and smaller informative exhibition on display. So here are just some of them that caught my attention. This was just a short path area showcasing conservative effort to preserve historical artifacts found around the world. 

But what's so cool about it is the huge stone structure displayed here. It almost felt like you were in Egypt! Were these found in China? Yeah, I didn't really the description. I rather let my imagination run wild! Lol. But I bet you could just Google it to find out more. I was just massively impressed with it.

I know I've already posted a post on metal pieces and art, but then again there was a hall filled with patriotic art pieces that just shine! And the colour scheme were really minimalistic, so that really drew my attention and admiration. Here is one of the Great Wall of China! The characters on it says the People's Lake and Mountain.

And here is a whole picture of the People's Lake and Mountain in a different perspective. Sometimes I wonder, why aren't artisans who made these art pieces that is admired from generations to generations more appreciated and rewarded. I remember seeing beautiful sandstone calving at Angkor Wat, but not much is mentioned about the people who calve them. The history focuses instead of the Kings that commission them. Such a pity.

There was a hall just on stones. And the display above was just mind blowing! Almost like you're in another realm, or even in space! Lol. All those pieces, made of stone, granite that shines. Lovely. Seriously, the display here at the museum was an art piece by itself!

I also looked out for my favourite Mulan movie references. So here is an ancient weapon, kinda like a hand canon, a mobile rocket launcher? You could see this in action in the cartoon Mulan! It's nice to see that it was based on real Chinese history! And yup, that's a whole dragon head there. 

Wooden display of cute table and chair, and the fascinating wooden 'typewritter'. It's a table of character tiles in Chinese! Maybe it was used more for ceremonial purposes or divination purposes. I'm pretty sure the Chinese characters hold more than that table ever could!

Lastly, spotted as we walked pass the main hallway, just casually displayed on a glass panel, this elegant piece.  It's made of wood, yet how soft and fluid it looked. Almost like it could move and dance all by itself! Yeah, as I explore more of Asia, I am convinced that I was brainwashed by the education system that seems to be pro-western culture. I am glad I now have time to finally undo those damages before it goes with me to my grave!

Beijing 2024 - National Museum of China (中国国家博物馆) Precious Metal Exhibition

There were also a few halls dedicated to metals, precious metals I take it? From bronze, to copper, to gold. It never occured to me that you could actually have different halls for each! That is how detailed and how much stuff the Chinese have to showcase! While reading up on these, I found out that copper is actually more valuable than bronze. So we start first with bronze and make our way up in this post! Above, already very fascinating, was just the display of the hall info before you even enter the exhibit. Those looked like a field of bronze lotus seed pod!

And wow! A sunflower display of bronze. This was so Van Gogh that I just had to take a photo of it and post it here. Not only was it made of bronze, it was totally 3D! Almost alive! So beautiful. And it shines too since it's made of bronze. I love the display. Like the sunflower was actually coming out of the painting. Beautiful! And I love how the lighting and the shadow just add to that effect. 

Next we have the copper exhibition hall. And again, the above row of pieces were just the welcoming sign! The way China casually flex their art pieces is really intimidating! Nothing caught my eye specifically here, so we will just move on to the gold exhibit.

A hall filled with gold items! And no, I don't mean petite jewelry or art pieces. I mean huge temple looking pavilion!

Or a whole pagoda made of gold!

And a whole bridge made of gold! Seriously, I think they are just gold platted. But they still looked pretty impressive! 

How huge are these pieces you ask? Here, let me put my husband on the golden bridge for scale! Lol. I think I might be missing some background mythology here, but most of the Chinese seems to be excited to take a photo of themselves crossing a golden bridge. Was I missing some reference here? Anyway, I just Googled it, and in summary :

"In Chinese culture, the "Golden Bridge" often symbolises a path to salvation or a bridge for cultural exchange. It also appears in Buddhist contexts, representing a path to the Pure Land of the West for those who have led exemplary lives"

Beijing 2024 - National Museum of China (中国国家博物馆) Ceramic Exhibition

 

Another beautiful craft from Asia is ceramic, and I think Eastern ceramic are the nicest of them all. Except for Western tea sets made of Fine Bone China, nothing else is especially notable when it comes to Western ceramic for me. But Eastern ceramic is on another level by itself. So I was excited whenever there is a ceramic exhibition available! 

It was a special ceramic exhibition on displayed here when we were there. The exhibit focuses mostly on the patterns that are created using different fire techniques. I've seen such wares before in Japanese ceramic too, and never thought much about them. After going through the exhibit here, I grew a different appreciation for these beautiful pieces. 

Noted that black ceramic are kinda hard to photograph with food, but you would be surprised how many black based ceramic I have at home! From plates to small bowls and even big Korean style salad bowls. It is hard to use them to wash vegetables since you can't see the dirt you are trying to get off! Lol. But you managed.

I love these, and I have two smaller bowls at home specifically used for soup drinking! They have a hint of blue on them, so it's totally different from these. These designed are made from fire! And the patterns can be found outside, but especially inside the bowls. And it's such a pleasure when you finish your food to get to admire the patterns at the bottom of the bowl. 

There were so many on displayed here. And each unique in pattern. One of a kind!

And yes, you guess it, I love that it's called 'Fire Dragon'. Everything in Eastern culture is just dragon everything! And that alone makes everything more mysterious, more majestic, more heavenly!

Here are more detailed zoom on the inner design. How they glitter like gold. So beautiful! 

Or this rather blue-ish purple-ish design that looks like a peacock feather inside a bowl. 

But I think I still love the sign design. Like this spiral looking one that just shines with different colour. I would personally not use it as I have a phobia of spiral bowls and plates! Lol. But I love this design. It feels like you could look at it and be hypnotise by it, going into another dimension all together! Ha! Suddenly that Spiral story kinda made sense!

Beijing 2024 - National Museum of China (中国国家博物馆) Painting Exhibition

Next we have exhibition of paintings. And so many pf them too! And one of the uniqueness of Chinese painting is the ink art and it's minimalistic approach to painting. I was looking forward to it. Even in Singapore, when I have too much time, I would visit the National Gallery to see whatever art pieces were on display. And sure enough, there are usually some Chinese art painting on display which I love.

Lot's of Chinese explanation on the painting display. I'll leave you to it.

Again, the hall was beatifuly lighted. 

More info. Apologies if the wordings are a bit blur -__-"""

A display of a painter's desk. Everything is so freaking organised. And so little paint or colours are needed for a Chinese painting. 

One of the artist who was on displayed when we were visiting. 

A self portrait of himself when he was younger. I just love the colour tone of the display.

A hall of emerald green displaying all the ink art pieces, just black and red paintings on a wall of emerald dark green. That itself was art itself! Lol. China, you do display excellently! And I don't say this lightly. You will be surprised when I show you some of the display they have in their library when I reach those post. Mind blowing! In a library!

I love minimalistic art.

There were also a few Buddhist art pieces here, and I love these. It's like, painting, yet vague. The bottom part is like a painting melted. So fitting for a religious piece.

Or this simple piece with warm colours, no facial expression, and also rather vague. Just a vague image. Everything else is up to the looker of the painting. It's so open ended!

Another piece in the same style.

And finally a final piece in this collection. It's so simple yet so lovely and calming :) Buddhism doesn't need jewels or wealth to display its beauty. Just a few colours and vague lines and shapes, lol. Enlightenment.