HONG KONG.- The Hong Kong Palace Museum, Hong Kong’s newest cultural landmark in the West Kowloon Cultural District, celebrated its first anniversary. To mark this important milestone and thank the public for their strong support throughout a successful first year of operations, Winnie Tam Wan-chi, Chairman of the HKPM Board; Betty Fung, Chief Executive Officer of West Kowloon Cultural District Authority; Dr Louis Ng, Museum Director of the HKPM; Dr Daisy Wang, Deputy Director, Curatorial and Programming of the HKPM and Brian Yuen, Deputy Director, Museum Operations of the HKPM greeted visitors at the entrance today and gave away HKPM-branded souvenirs to the first 100 people passing through the Museum’s doors.

Since opening to the public on 3 July 2022, the HKPM has welcomed approximately 1.3 million visitors and successfully presented 12 impressive and high-quality exhibitions, each of which has taken an innovative approach to curation incorporating multimedia elements and a unique cultural perspective. In addition to presenting some of the finest objects from the Palace Museum and other important cultural institutions around the world, the Museum has fostered strong partnerships in the areas of academic and cultural exchange, helping to build a stronger dialogue among world civilisations and reinforcing Hong Kong’s position as a centre for East-meets-West international cultural exchange.

Winnie Tam Wan-chi, Chairman of the HKPM Board, said, “We are delighted to celebrate this important milestone. In the past year, the Museum has brought moments of delight and amazement to the viewing public. We would like to express our deep gratitude to the Palace Museum for loaning such precious objects for display in Hong Kong, and to our donors and patrons for their generous donations and support. Kudos must go to our curatorial and operational teams for their professionalism and dedication. The Museum has been empowered by the overwhelming support of the general public and visitors from around the world. We vow to continue to present exceptional exhibitions and programmes at the HKPM with the aim of presenting and promoting Chinese culture to a global audience, in accordance with the National 14th Five-Year Plan to develop Hong Kong into an East-meets-West Centre for international cultural exchange.”




In addition to celebrating its anniversary milestone, the HKPM is pleased to announce that the fifth rotation of treasures on loan from the Palace Museum has gone on display in Galleries 1, 2 and 5 for a three-month period until September 2023. Most of the 51 treasures in this rotation are being seen in Hong Kong for the first time, including two Grade-one national treasures—the ewer in the shape of pine tree by the renowned Ming dynasty bamboo carver Pu Cheng and the brush pot in the shape of a Chinese cabbage by the famed Qing dynasty bamboo carver Feng Xijue. These two exceptional pieces are on display in the exhibition “The Quest for Originality: Contemporary Design and Traditional Craft in Dialogue” in Gallery 5.

In Gallery 1, the exhibition “Entering the Forbidden City: Collection, Architecture, and Heritage” features the newly arrived “Presenting the Empress’s Investiture Book and Seal at the Hall of Union” from The Grand Imperial Wedding of the Guangxu Emperor, which depicts a scene of the Guangxu Emperor’s grand wedding, as well as the only known surviving gold seal of an empress with the inscription “Seal of the Empress” in the Palace Museum Collection. In Gallery 2, “From Dawn to Dusk: Life in the Forbidden City” showcases “The Maze” from Twenty Views of European-style Mansions in the Garden of Perfect Brightness, a set of prints showing the magnificent scenery of the imperial garden Yuanmingyuan of the Qing dynasty and the integration of European and Chinese painting styles and landscape architectural features.

The HKPM also announces that, starting from July 2023, free admission to Galleries 1 to 7 will no longer be offered on Wednesdays. The Museum will ensure that the most effective support is given to members of the public, including underprivileged groups, to continue to enjoy its exhibitions and events. During the first year of operations, the HKPM received more than 120,000 visitors from underprivileged backgrounds and over 70,000 members from the education sector including students, teachers and principals.

Members of the public can purchase admission tickets for August through the HKPM website, the West Kowloon Cultural District website, the West Kowloon Cultural District app, the Cityline online ticketing platform as well as the online ticketing platforms of the HKPM’s existing ticketing partners, namely China Travel Service (Hong Kong) Limited, Fliggy, KKday, Klook, Ctrip and Trip.com. All types of admission tickets for July can also be purchased through the same channels.