A visitor explores an exhibiton at the Hong Kong Palace Museum. Photo: VCG

The Hong Kong Palace Museum has unveiled its exhibition lineup for 2024, with a focus on four major exhibitions highlighting the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) Old Summer Palace, the origin of Chinese civilization, and cultural exchanges between China and France.   

The first large-scale exhibition presented by the museum in 2024 will be on the Old Summer Palace, or "Yuanmingyuan" in Chinese. It will showcase more than 190 important cultural relics related to the imperial garden, including paintings, calligraphy and architectural models. 

Co-organized by the Palace Museum in Beijing, the Hong Kong Palace Museum and the Yuanmingyuan administration, the exhibition will be open to the public from March 20 to August 12.

In September, the museum will host a major exhibition themed around the origin of Chinese civilization, showcasing significant archaeological discoveries in recent years.

The year of 2024 marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France. In collaboration with two French cultural and artistic institutions, the museum will co-organize two large-scale exhibitions, including a grand French fashion exhibition in June and a thematic exhibition on cultural exchanges between China and France from the 17th to 18th centuries, scheduled to open in December.

In 2024, the museum will continue to collaborate with top global art and cultural institutions to plan world-class exhibitions, promote traditional Chinese culture, and advocate for exchanges and mutual learning between different civilizations, said Wu Zhihua, director of the Hong Kong Palace Museum. 

Since its opening in July 2022, the museum has presented a total of 16 thematic and special exhibitions, showcasing treasures from its own collection, the Palace Museum and other important cultural institutions worldwide, welcoming more than 2.1 million visitors to date.