China Red Sandalwood Museum
Going east along Chang'an Avenue, on the north side of the Gaobeidian exit of the Beijing-Tong Expressway, you will see a large group of Ming and Qing Dynasty buildings, which is the China Red Sandalwood Museum. It was built by Ms. Chen Lihua, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Chairman of Hong Kong Fuhua International Group, Honorary Doctor of Humanities of Savannah College of Art and Design, and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, with an investment of more than 200 million yuan. It is a key project of Beijing to pay tribute to the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The China Red Sandalwood Museum is the first and largest private museum in China that integrates collection and research, display and exhibition of red sandalwood art, and appreciation of traditional Chinese classical furniture. It fills a gap in the Chinese museum community. The China Red Sandalwood Museum itself can be called a perfect and spectacular handicraft. The design of this 25,000 square meter museum is grand and exquisite, with an antique and modern atmosphere. The main entrance alone uses more than 400 cubic meters of wood, and all of it is a pure wooden structure. The four pillars supporting the gate are 8 meters high and 0.6 meters thick. Both the scale and the material are rare in Beijing's antique buildings. The five-story main building uses the grinding brick joint technology, with no error of millimeters. The square in front of the museum, which is more than 1,000 square meters, is paved with large blue bricks, which were only used by the royal family in the past and then soaked in tung oil. Chen Lihua hired woodworking experts, tile experts and painting experts who worked in the Palace Museum at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China to guide the entire project. These experts have always been called "living national treasures". The exhibition hall of the China Red Sandalwood Museum covers an area of 9,569 square meters. There are central halls, exhibition halls, conference halls, VIP halls, multi-function halls and temporary exhibition halls, where you can enjoy: the Ming and Qing furniture collected by Director Chen Lihua for decades; the fine traditional furniture produced under the careful guidance of Director Chen Lihua for nearly 30 years; Buddhist cultural artworks; traditional furniture materials, shapes and structures; carving techniques; in addition, you can also appreciate the miniature Chinese ancient architectural landscape: the corner towers of the Forbidden City, the Qianqiu Pavilion and Wanchun Pavilion in the Imperial Garden of the Forbidden City, which fully demonstrate the royal style; the archway of Longquan Temple in Wutai Mountain, Shanxi, with 320 dragons in different postures, exquisite round sculptures, reliefs and openwork sculptures, which are rarely seen in the world; the quaint Beijing courtyard, the Feiyun Tower in Shanxi that rises into the sky, and the large-scale architectural model of the ancient city gate of old Beijing... These artistic treasures that convey oriental charm are all made of precious red sandalwood. Over the years, China Red Sandalwood Museum has been adhering to the business philosophy of "inheritance, development and innovation", working silently on inheriting and promoting the traditional Chinese furniture art, and making it flourish. It is precisely because of the foresight of Director Chen Lihua that the red sandalwood carving craft, which was on the verge of extinction, has been rescued, protected and innovated. In September 2011, the "red sandalwood carving skills" applied by China Red Sandalwood Museum were included in the third batch of national intangible cultural heritage list by the State Council. In 2012, it was designated by the Beijing Municipal Government as a demonstration base for the productive protection of Beijing's intangible cultural heritage. As an important cultural landscape in Beijing, China Red Sandalwood Museum was rated as a national 4A-level tourist unit by the National Tourism Administration at the end of 2003. It has received tourists and dignitaries from all over the world. Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, former Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase and his wife, Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, Sri Lankan Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa and others have visited China Red Sandalwood Museum and happily left messages, giving high praise and appreciation to the museum. In order to better spread the traditional Chinese red sandalwood culture overseas, the China Red Sandalwood Museum has held a tour exhibition with the theme of "The Secret of Red Sandalwood" in the United States, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Guangzhou and other countries and regions, introducing China to the world and displaying the traditional Chinese classical furniture culture, which has been highly respected and recognized by local people from all walks of life. At the same time, the China Red Sandalwood Museum has also built a bridge for cultural exchanges between the East and the West in another form. Several world-class museums, including the Palace Museum in Beijing, the Dresden State Art Collection in Germany, the Smithsonian Institution in the United States, the Chateau de Chambord in France, and the Kyushu National Museum in Japan, have collected large red sandalwood art treasures from the China Red Sandalwood Museum. Zheng Xinmiao, then Vice Minister of the Ministry of Culture of China and Director of the Palace Museum, praised this initiative for making an important contribution to the spread of Chinese traditional culture to the world. In the future, the China Red Sandalwood Museum will continue to take the protection of historical heritage and the promotion of Chinese traditional culture as its mission. It will fully and highly display the charm of red sandalwood art and reproduce the glory of traditional Chinese furniture!