Looking beyond the treasures

The Palace Museum in Beijing, also known as the Forbidden City, wants to prove it's not only one of the country's top exhibition venues for cultural relics but also a leading institution for academic studies.

With this in mind, the museum announced its recent major academic achievements in Beijing last week.

It recently released a 20-volume compendium of furniture from the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties that included 2,000 articles housed in the museum.