CRI听力: Museum- New Way of Spring Festival Celebration

The most important festival in China- the Spring Festival is coming. Chinese people celebrate it in various ways, and this year, people living in Beijing have a new place to go: museums.

Zhang Wan brings us more.

Reporter:

In the coming Chinese lunar year of the tiger, people in Beijing can visit any museum to celebrate. Over 300 exhibitions in 130 museums in Beijing will provide citizens with delicious cultural dishes for their enjoyment.

Cui Guoming is the deputy Director of the Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage.

"Changes have taken place in how we celebrate the Spring Festival nowadays, and people are more interested in participating in cultural activities. Museums carry this kind of responsibility. To meet citizens' cultural demands, we'll hold a series of activities catering to all ages and providing more activities."

The series of cultural activities is divided into three categories including various exhibitions and lectures on Chinese culture and historic folk customs. And people can also join activities such as temple fairs and park events.

As one of the most important museums in Beijing, the Capital Museum of China has prepared a number exhibitions and activities. In the special exhibition "Tigers in Traditional Chinese Culture", people can not only see many cultural relics, and enjoy Chinese opera, but can also learn to make Chinese knots, paper cuttings and small cloth tigers for decoration.

Diao Songquan has been living in Beijing for about 62 years, and he can still remember how he celebrated the Spring Festival at the temple fair when he was young. However, he says, things have changed and more locals now visit the museums.

"I think it is very good, and this is an innovation. To celebrate the Spring Festival by going to museums is a very good way to reduce the distance between local people and museums, and it gives people more chances to learn about and experience Chinese culture."

This activity is part of "My Beijing, My Home," a series of cultural activities in celebration of the 2010 Spring Festival in Beijing. Over 130 museums in 18 districts and counties of Beijing will provide various exhibitions and hold activities throughout the Chinese New Year. Some of the exhibitions will last until July of this year, and some will even last for the whole year. (www.hXen.com)

Editor's note:
Most of the exhibitions are free to the public, except the exhibition on Matteo Ricci, the envoy who promoted the mixing of science, technology, and culture between China and the West during the late Ming Dynasty, which will cost 30 yuan per person.