The Palace Museum has never failed to catch people's eyes with the creative souvenirs inspired by its rich cultural heritage. Recently, the Palace Museum held an event to promote its special souvenirs. Also, the ancient palace will open three more areas to visitors within this year. 

Promoting cross-culture heritage from land to sea --- and back! That's how Beijing's Palace Museum is doing, with its collaboration with US cruise line Royal Caribbean International.

Promoting cross-culture heritage from land to sea and back—that is what Beijing’s Palace Museum is doing, with its collaboration with U.S. cruise line Royal Caribbean International.

The museum has held a cultural lecture event to show its souvenirs on the MS Ovation of the Seas—the cruise line’s new ship harboring in Tianjin.

But they are not those simple souvenirs we know. In fact, the Museum has made more than 8,700 kinds of them, and their sales surpassed 1 billion yuan (U.S.$150 million) in 2015. 

“This is just one of the activities to enhance cross-culture communication and facilitate people to bring museums home. And more cooperation with the RCI will follow in the future. More lectures and virtual display of the museum’s cultural heritages on the ships will possibly be the next project,” said Sha Jixiang, Palace Museum director.

The Museum has held a cultural lecture event to show its souvenirs on the MS Ovation of the Seas -- the cruise line's new ship harboring in Tianjin.

Besides that, the museum will open three more spots to visitors within this year. They include the passageways from the Duanhong Bridge to the Longzong Gate and from the Archery Pavilion to the Hall of Literary Glory and the Western Canal Street. The opening of these spots will increase the total area of the Forbidden City to 76 percent from 65 percent.

“In the future, 85 percent of the Forbidden City will be opened to visitors. Other than this, visitors will soon see a cultural relic restoration room. The Cultural Relic Protection and the Technology Department of the Palace Museum will soon be moved to the Western Canal Street. We’ll also build a cultural relic restoration center,” Sha said.

By then, a “transparent” glass restoration room, spanning more than 360 meters long and covering an area of 13,000 square meters will be standing to greet the visitors. In this way, the process of cultural relic repair will be easy for visitors to see.