Photo: China News
Over 100 years ago, a museum acting as a bridge for communication between China and Russia was established in the border city of Heihe in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, becoming the first and only memorial hall in China to exhibit the history of overseas Chinese and Chinese students studying in Russia.
After a year of renovation that began in 2019, the Lv'e Overseas Chinese Memorial Hall, which was first built in 1906, reopened to the public over the summer with a new face to welcome Chinese students who planned to go to Russia to study.
One of the first batch of cities in China to open its border with Russia in the early 1990s, Heihe city is separated from the Russian city of Blagoveshchensk by the Heihe River. Together the two cities are known as the "Sino-Russian Twin Cities."
Since the 19th century, a large number of Chinese in Russia have traveled between the two nations, which had a profound impact on the exchanges between the two in the fields of politics, economics, trade and the humanities.
Pan Linlin, an employee at the museum, told the Global Times on Monday that over the past decade the museum has welcomed about 50,000 foreign visitors, most of whom were Russian.
"Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the museum is currently only open to visitors in China, while the number of visitors is limited to 20 a day. In October, the museum welcomed more than 300 visitors, all of whom were required to wear face masks and show their health QR code to staff at the entrance," said Pan.
According to Pan, the newly renovated museum now covers a total of 3,400 square meters of floor space and some new rooms including temporary exhibition halls and multi-functional meeting rooms have been added.
The Lv'e Overseas Chinese Memorial Hall mainly focuses on introducing the history of Chinese traveling and studying in Russia since the mid-19th century, while also displaying objects such as paintings, silver and golden relics from Russia as well as some memorable items from overseas Chinese in Russia.
"The revised exhibition has enhanced its objectivity, interest and interactivity. It incorporates Russian cultural elements in the use of colors, lighting, design elements, and graphic layout, and creates an immersive visit experience by means such as visual projections, touch screens and scene restorations," said Pan.
Xu Jiyi, the curator of the museum, told the Global Times on Monday that the museum receives about 150,000 visitors each year, and has developed into a patriotic education base for the Chinese Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese as well as a base for international cultural exchanges among overseas Chinese in China.
"The revised exhibition will play a more active role in carrying out Party history education, and deepening the friendly relations between China and Russia," said Xu.