Cultural heritage thriving in Tongzhou

The Beijing Municipal Administrative Center in the city's Tongzhou district has earned the reputation of being a new cultural hub with the launch of several significant cultural facilities.

Three cultural landmarks — Beijing Performing Arts Centre, Beijing Library and the Grand Canal Museum of Beijing — were opened to the public in late December 2023, which has injected impetus into the capital's municipal administrative center to provide a spiritual platform for residents, especially young people.

Official data showed that until Sept 3, the Beijing Performing Arts Centre has hosted a total of 190 performances and 176 art events, attracting 135,900 visits.

The arts center stands out for its contemporary and fashionable performances that integrate a variety of art forms with the goal of attracting a younger audience and capturing a wider market, local officials said.

"The arts center introduces classic performances from the National Centre for the Performing Arts, allowing audiences in the Beijing Municipal Administrative Center to appreciate sophisticated and classic art," said Li Xiaoyi, a manager at the operation and management department of the NCPA. "As well, the Beijing Performing Arts Centre has made more attempts to attract younger audiences and diversify its performance lineup, expanding into new artistic genres such as musicals, contemporary dance, avant-garde theater and immersive performances to create new stages for performing arts."

Another landmark, the Grand Canal Museum of Beijing, has drawn residents' attention by its heavyweight exhibitions.

For instance, the exhibition titled Unveiling Sanxingdui and Jinsha of Ancient Shu Civilization, which opened in the Grand Canal museum in June, had received more than 860,000 visits by mid-August.

"The exhibition has been so popular that at its busiest times, this small exhibition hall received up to 30,000 visits per day," said Liu Ping, a guide at the museum.

Since its opening until mid-August, the museum has received more than 1.7 million visits. It has launched four types of exhibitions.

Among them, the permanent exhibition demonstrating the history and culture of Beijing and the Grand Canal features more than 1,000 cultural relics and artworks in eight parts, depicting the evolution and development of the Grand Canal throughout history.

"This exhibition is very helpful for visitors, especially young people, to have a deeper understanding of the history of the Grand Canal," Liu said.

In addition to the arts center and museum, Beijing Library is dedicated to providing a cultural platform for young people.

Beijing Library's innovative and progressive approach makes it an attractive space for young readers. To bring young people back to the library, the facility is required to adopt innovative approaches instead of sticking to traditional formats, said Li Lingxiao, deputy director of the promotion and planning department at the Capital Library of China.

"We will continuously enrich our collection and extract the cultural and knowledge elements within them for recreation and processing. This will involve creating immersive cultural scenes where visitors can engage in interactive experiences and communication inside the library," Li Lingxiao said.