Beijing's Songzhuang, an art zone in Tongzhou District, is marking the International Museum Day with a "museum without walls" cultural initiative.
In the days leading up to the International Museum Day, which falls on Sunday this year, Songzhuang has brought together nine of its most distinctive local museums, showcasing rare collections ranging from vintage film projectors and antique telephones to traditional enamel art.
Instead of staying behind gallery walls, these exhibits are traveling into local villages, schools, and neighborhoods throughout Tongzhou.
Aside from exhibitions, the "museum without walls" event also features hands-on cultural experiences, science workshops, and demonstrations of how to make intangible cultural heritage crafts.
"I think it's really great that all the museums are brought together in one place. Now we don't have to travel far to see so many unique and interesting things and can have a look at them all at once," said Ma Shuochen, a student at Songzhuang Central Primary School.
The activities aim to break down the traditional barriers between museums and the public, making arts and culture more accessible to people of all ages.
Beijing art district holds 'museum without walls' activities
Former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi praised China's economic transformation, saying its innovation-driven growth has exceeded global forecasts, in an exclusive interview with China Central Television (CCTV) aired Friday.
During his tenure as prime minister, Prodi chose China as his first overseas destination outside of Europe, leading a large delegation of political and business figures on the trip in 1984. He subsequently visited China multiple times during his term, driving bilateral ties forward with concrete actions.
Speaking on China's economic transition, Prodi noted that the country's transition to an innovation-led industrial model has advanced quickly and produced broad benefits.
"If you take the technology and technology progress, I am an economist, nobody could have never dreamt such a change. Everybody knew that China was efficient in production and industry productivity also. But to increase the value chain, as China did and very high tech, which was not in our forecast. When I observe the Chinese society, I think that the technology is spread among people more than in Europe. The absorption of the new ideas, of new technology in this moment in China is very, very quick. In some of these fields the primacy has been achieved in much time before I could imagine," he said.
As a former professor of economics, Prodi believes what sets China apart from other countries is a unique, integrated value chain with its industry covers everything from textiles to high-tech manufacturing and seamlessly connects all production stages.
"And the popular feeling, the most important achievements are the new mass production, new high-tech mass production - electrical cars, batteries, solar energy, wind energy, you know - totally new and mass production. And in these fields China is unique and no other country, there is no other achievement in the world of this type. But in the meanwhile, China preserves the production of intermediate goods, and so on and so on," Prodi said.
China’s innovation-driven growth surpasses global expectations: former Italian PM
