Digital show adds Palace Museum's holiday charm

BEIJING -- The Palace Museum is putting on a digital show of relics that have gained national fame through a television program.

The "National Treasure" exhibition, running through the Lunar New Year holiday until Feb. 25, also marks the museum's first exhibition opening in 2018.

Giant LED screens were set up at an outdoor square inside the Forbidden City, playing interactive videos of nine relics selected from nine museums across the country. Among them is a stone drum from the Palace Museum.

"National Treasure", aired weekly by China Central Television starting last December, is billed as a cultural exploration program using theatrical play and other art forms to tell the story behind each piece of the country's top cultural relics.

The show was popular, scoring high on the show rating site Douban.com and attracting a large number of young followers keen to explore the country's rich culture.

The Chinese have in recent years found a passion in museums. The Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City in central Beijing, is often a top choice. The museum has not reported the number of daily visitors during the holiday, but long queues were spotted every day in the past four days.

China has about 5,000 museums, logging 900 million visits last year.