Exhibits aim to draw Greek visitors to Forbidden City

ATHENS-A rare exhibition about China's Emperor Qianlong is being held at the Acropolis Museum in Athens, with artifacts to be presented to the public for the first time on Saturday, the museum said.

The ongoing exhibition, titled From the Forbidden City: The imperial apartments of Qianlong, has been organized by the Acropolis Museum in cooperation with the Palace Museum of Beijing and will run through Feb 14, 2019.

It boasts 154 exquisite works of art, ceremonial robes, furniture and functional objects from the emperor's private apartments at the Palace of Many Splendors (Chonghua Gong).

Through five sections, the life of the emperor is recreated, from his youth as a prince to his maturity as the ruler.

One of the most renowned rulers in Chinese history, Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) reigned for over 60 years.

"It is a great opportunity to present to the public for the first time, items that were locked away in the dusty rooms of the Great Emperor Qianlong, many of which have not even been seen by the Chinese public," the president of the Acropolis Museum Dimitrios Pandermalis said during a news conference.

"With these exhibits, we want all visitors, Greek and foreign, to know the life of the emperor, from his childhood to his accession to power," said Li Xiaocheng, deputy director of the Palace Museum in Beijing.

Li said the exhibition is also to "open a window for the world to understand Chinese history and culture".

In another development, an exhibition about Chinese civilization opened on Wednesday at the National Museum in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh, marking one of the largest cultural relic displays hosted by China in the kingdom.

The exhibition Treasures of China includes 264 items provided by 13 museums and cultural institutions, such as the Palace Museum, among which 173 are Chinese cultural relics, including the globally known Terracotta Warriors. Close to half the items have never been showcased outside China before.

Jointly hosted by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China (SACH) and Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage, the exhibition also displays objects from joint Chinese-Saudi archaeological site excavations at the ruins of Al-Sereen.

The joint project has provided valuable physical references for archaeological research involved with the Maritime Silk Road and testified to the close encounters between China and the Red Sea area during ancient times, according to Hu Bing, deputy administrator of SACH.