Heavenly Lanterns auction at Forbidden City

A pair of Heavenly Lanterns and Longevity Lanterns each painstakingly recreated from the Qing dynasty are the biggest creative products ever designed by the Palace Museum will be put up for auction in early April, the museum’s curator Shan Jixiang said.  He announced this in a speech at the 2019 Tencent Neo-Culture Creativity Conference held in Beijing, saying all the proceeds from the auction will be donated to help people in China’s poverty-stricken regions.

The visiting areas of the Forbidden City during a special exhibition for Spring Festival were transformed into a cultural experience with heavenly lanterns (tiandeng) and longevity lanterns (wanshou deng) at the Palace of Heavenly Purity and the Hall of Imperial Supremacy.  The lanterns, all historically accurate reconstructions based on archives from the Qing dynasty, were installed and lit up for the first time in almost two centuries. In the Qing dynasty, the installation and dismantling of these Spring Festival lanterns required the work of over 8,000 personnel, according to the museum.

The curator vowed to further improve its digital platform to make a visit to the museum an easier, more efficient and more enjoyable experience for visitors. Among the key speakers at the 2019 Tencent Neo-Culture Creativity Conference are writer Mai Jia, who talked about how writers can tell stories about China to the world well, and Tencent Pictures CEO Cheng Wu, who said the evolvement in cultural production modes is leading to China’s higher ability to tell its own story.

Visit the Forbidden City and experience a once in a lifetime trip to a historical site!