On October 10, the Palace Museum celebrated its 100th anniversary. During China’s National Day Golden Week, the Palace Museum, as always, dominated the tourist spotlight.
The Forbidden City, with its unwavering status as a top-tier institution, gained a sense of weight and warmth spanning centuries during this holiday season thanks to the exhibition “A Century of Guarding: From the Forbidden City to the Palace Museum.” Countless visitors, filled with respect and curiosity, embarked on this “Century of Time and Space Journey Through the Forbidden City.”
Protecting, inheriting, passing on the legacy… In one exhibition, we quickly recount the Forbidden City’s century of history, witnessing the dazzling brilliance of China’s national treasures, the changing seasons, and the changing world within and beyond the palace walls. In the hearts of the Chinese people, the Forbidden City is not only a collection of architecture and cultural relics, but also a community of memory forged by generations of guardians with their love and perseverance.
On October 10, 1925, the opening ceremony of the Palace Museum of China was held in front of the Palace of Heavenly Purity, heralding its establishment. On opening day, a plaque reading “The Palace Museum” was hung above the Gate of Divine Prowess. Thousands of citizens of China’s capital, Beijing, flocked to the Forbidden City, eager to glimpse the centuries-old imperial enclosure and its mysterious treasures.
One hundred years later, in October, the Palace Museum in China was packed with visitors. The Forbidden City Centennial Exhibition at the Meridian Gate showcased 200 artifacts, showcasing the museum’s journey from its inception to its tortuous growth, from its initial struggles to its rapid progress, and from exploration to its relentless innovation.
Centennial Exhibition: From the Forbidden City to the Palace Museum
Inside the Meridian Gate exhibition hall, the grand exhibition “A Century of Guarding: From the Forbidden City to the Palace Museum” drew a packed audience. With “guarding” as its central theme, the exhibition systematically charted the Palace Museum’s century-long history through three chapters: “A Continuous Cultural Heritage,”"A Century of Heritage,” and “A Thousand Visions of Reflection.” In the “Century of Heritage” section, national treasures such as “Along the River During the Qingming Festival,”"Five Oxen,” and “Bo Yuan Tie” were showcased. In conjunction with live demonstrations of copying, reproduction, and restoration, the exhibition vividly and comprehensively showcased the heritage of cultural relic preservation techniques.
It’s worth noting that, coinciding with the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, the “Palace Museum Cultural Relics Southward Migration Commemorative Exhibition” at Shenwu Gate imbues the centennial with a unique historical resonance. Over a hundred archives and precious cultural relics from the southward migration depict the magnificent journeys of the Chinese people, who braved dangers and traveled thousands of miles to protect national treasures during those war-torn years. This exhibition not only represents the history of the Palace Museum itself, but also portrays the unyielding spirit of the Chinese people in upholding the legacy of their culture in the face of adversity.
Two-dimensional opening: vitality in the era of prosperity
The Palace Museum is using a profound and diverse “open” practice to bring fresh vitality to dormant cultural relics.
On the one hand, there’s an expansion of physical space. From a time when less than half the area was open to the public, with the vast majority of the museum’s 1.95 million artifacts “shelved,” to now when the palace gates are gradually opening, and online guides reveal that “at least a full day” is the norm, it’s no secret. Furthermore, the soon-to-be-completed North Campus, with its 12 modern exhibition halls, promises to fundamentally improve the display of cultural relics, allowing more treasures to complete their historic transformation from closed storage to public cultural space.
Another aspect is the openness of cultural mindedness. Whether it’s the “Dialogue Between the Forbidden City and Versailles” or the “Mythical Journey of Daedalus,” a series of international collaborative exhibitions staged within its red walls and yellow tiles demonstrate China’s cultural magnanimity and openness. This openness has transformed the Forbidden City from a one-way exhibition hall into a vibrant arena for the exchange and mutual learning of global civilizations. This showcases both Chinese characteristics and an open attitude towards promoting exchange and mutual learning among civilizations.
Not only has the open area of the Forbidden City continued to expand, but as a reception hall for Chinese culture, the Palace Museum has also continued to promote opening up and exchanges and cooperation, and to promote the harmonious coexistence of Chinese civilization and civilizations of other countries.
The Palace Museum also continues to deepen its exchanges and interactions with the global cultural and museum community through various means, expanding the breadth and depth of mutual learning among civilizations. The construction and operation of the Hong Kong Palace Museum exemplify the Palace Museum’s commitment to building a platform for mutual learning among civilizations. Since its opening in June 2022, it has attracted over 3.4 million visitors.
The Code of Youth: Cross-border Integration and Digital Empowerment
Why does the Forbidden City, over 600 years old, seem to be getting younger and younger? The answer lies in its innate spirit of innovation.
The Palace Museum has thoroughly researched the spiritual and cultural needs of young people, and through a series of unexpected cross-disciplinary collaborations, has produced countless eye-catching surprises. The Palace Museum’s cultural and creative products now encompass over 3,000 items, many of which are in short supply. Products such as the “Purple Gold Four Seasons Screen” refrigerator magnet and the imperial bead earphones are particularly popular.
The spirit of innovation lies in the dual symphony of digital empowerment and cultural programming. Digital technology has opened up a richer range of ways to “explore” the Forbidden City. The development of the “Digital Forbidden City” continues to advance, with the “Palace Museum” mini-program and numerous apps launching online to widespread acclaim. For example, the introduction of AR technology in the “Forbidden City Calendar” brings static paintings to life, presenting cultural relics in a three-dimensional, dynamic form, injecting a new charm into traditional culture. Furthermore, from “I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City” to “Only This Green,” the Forbidden City leverages a variety of art forms, including film, television, and dance, to depict the vitality within and beyond its walls. These works have not only sparked heated debate but have also resonated with the cultural chords of our times, deeply touching the hearts of the younger generation.
Protection and inheritance: The Forbidden City continues to write a chapter of civilization
As the guardian and inheritor of China’s 5,000-year-old civilization, the Palace Museum has forged a cultural monument through centuries of perseverance and continuous innovation. From the epic southward migration of cultural relics during the war-torn years—over 10,000 boxes of national treasures transported across vast distances under the selfless care of Palace Museum staff—to today, generations of cultural relic restorers, in their quiet chambers, connect the past with the present with their ingenuity, restoring the splendor of dusty paintings and calligraphy and revitalizing damaged artifacts.
The return and rebirth of every cultural relic is the product of the hard work of countless individuals. China has also demonstrated a systematic approach to the recovery and return of lost cultural relics. Since the Opium War, over 10 million Chinese cultural relics have been lost overseas. In recent years, through a systematic approach combining diplomatic negotiations, legal collaboration, technological empowerment, and public participation, China has successfully facilitated the return of 537 cultural relics in 35 batches between 2021 and 2025. The return of key cultural relics, including the Old Summer Palace stone pillars and the Feng Xingshu Gui, has resonated widely internationally.
The Palace Museum, both ancient and youthful, brimming with vitality, is radiating unprecedented brilliance with a high-spirited attitude. China’s century-long legacy is not only a splendid treasure, but also a perpetually evolving model of civilization, continuously writing a contemporary chapter in Chinese culture on the world stage.
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