By Zhang Jian and

Yang Zhenxiao

On 29th January, Qianlong’s holiday was unveiled at Nantong Museum. The exhibition brings together nearly 100 precious cultural relics related to Qianlong from museums including the Palace Museum, Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum, and Chengde Mountain Resort Museum. It is called ‘the seventh southern tour of Qianlong’ by industry insiders. At the same time, nearly 300 popular cultural and creative products from the Palace Museum and Nanjing Museum are on sale during the exhibition period.

Xu Ning, the deputy curator of Nantong Museum, introduced, ‘every New Year’s Day, which means the Chinese New Year now, Qianlong would get up early and write down the prayers and petitions for blessings for the year.’

The special exhibition brings together 4 New Year’s Day calligraphy works personally written by Qianlong in the first year (1736), 11th year(1746), and 14th year(1749) of his reign, as well as ‘the 64th year’ (which is the 4th year of Emperor Jiaqing, 1799).

What did Qianlong eat for the Spring Festival? Taking the family banquet on the morning of the Chinese New Year of the 48th year of Qianlong’s reign (1783) as an example, the dishes on the emperor’s banquet table included bird’s nest with roast duck, roast meat hot pot, sweet potatoes, New Year rice cakes, etc.

To let the audience immerse themselves in the exhibition and enjoy their visits to the museum, many interactive activities were set up on site. Outside the exhibition hall, a glittering golden dragon throne is particularly eye-catching. According to introduction, during the exhibition, the audience can dress as ‘Gege’ and ‘Beile’, sit on the dragon throne and take photos.

Despite featuring many national treasures, the tickets for the exhibition are only 5 yuan.

It is learnt that there are also a lot of exquisite cultural and creative products available for purchase.