National Museum of China, IMPA 2013 Class Tour

On March 29, 30 IMPA 2013 students from 26 countries visited the National Museum of China. This trip was part of the orientation efforts to familiarize students with Beijing, and to help them learn about the history and culture of China’s five thousand year civilization.

The tour started with the museum surroundings, which is located in the heart of Beijing, an area clustered with both historic and modern buildings and architecture. The group walked past Qianmen, Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, Monument to the People’s Heroes, and Tian’anmen Square, which are all major symbols of the capital city. When the university bus approached Qianmen, which is also known as the symbol of Ancient Beijing, students were intrigued by the old style of Chinese architecture and dived into a period of questions. The students spread out right away after stepping into the grand hall of the Museum. They first visited the “Exhibition of the Centennial of the National Museum of China: History and Achievements” to grasp the development of China’s museum over the past century. The architecture design from Tsinghua University in the international bidding proposals for the Museum piqued the students’ interest. In the exhibition hall of “Ancient Chinese Money”, Judith from Uganda exclaimed, “These Chinese ancient money is similar to that in my country.” When entering the exhibition hall of “Classic Painting of Ancient China”, students kept praising the well-preserved paintings from the 18th century.

Students have expressed that the tour was very meaningful because it helped them understand China’s ancient and modern history, as well as Chinese culture, and directly displayed the fusion of the past and present.