The Chinese National Museum

As I briefly mentioned in my last post about Labor Day here in China, I had last Friday off in honor of the holiday. Since traveling in China during national holidays seems to more of a lesson futility due to the large crowds of tourists everywhere, I decided to stay in Beijing and visit some places I wanted to see before I leave. Included on that list, was the newly-reopened Chinese National Museum (中国国家博物馆).

After undergoing over three years of renovations, the National Museum recently re-opened after years of arguing and revisions. Historically, the current site of the National Museum was home to two separate museums, the Museum of Chinese History and the Museum of the Chinese Revolution; they were combined in 2003 to make up the Chinese National Museum. In an effort to boost China's (specifically, Beijing's) international standing, the Chinese government decided it was time to renovate and bring the museum up to par (or at least, what they felt like was up to par).

The original plan was to have the museum completely redone, renovated and opened for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, however due to years of arguing and disagreement over the museum's content and endless revisions on the interior design, was not finished in time. Nor was it finished in time for it's second hoped-for end date, which was supposed to coincide the 60th Anniversary of Communist rule on October 1, 2009. Finally, the National Museum reopened just this past March after years and years of delay.

Since 2008, China's museums have gradually begun waiving their entrance fee, in hopes of attracting more visitors. While I appreciate free museum admission as much as anyone, in the case of the National Museum, this seems to have backfired.

Happy Labor Day!

If you haven't looked at a calendar yet today, today is May 1st, which for China and many other countries is Labor Day, or in Chinese, 劳动节(láodòng jié). Since the holiday falls on a Sunday this year, Chinese people have tomorrow off too. (I don't have the day off however, since for scheduling purposes BNU decided to give us April 29th off instead of May 2nd)

For obvious reasons, the United States does not celebrate Labor Day on May 1st. (If you don't know why, do a quick internet search on "International Worker's Day.") But, since I'm in China, I hope you have a fantastic May 1st, regardless if May 1st has any significance (labor-related or otherwise) to you.

Now for some pictures I took almost a month ago at the Ming Dynasty City Wall Relics Park and Southeast Corner Watchtower.

Side note: I know, I know. I've been slacking on the blogging recently. My sincerest apologies. I know I still have a ton of pictures to go through from Hong Kong and posts to write about that. I blame the weather. It's impossible to stay inside when the weather's been so great these past few weeks. I guess it's probably a good thing I attended college in New York and not somewhere with a warm climate. Haha. On the upside though, it does mean I do have a lot of blogging material just waiting for me to write about. So stay tuned!