Han Ximin

SHENZHEN Museum will open a new public display area in the east wing of the Citizen’s Center on Friday, featuring 6,000-year-old relics unearthed in the city as well as the achievements of reform and opening up the nation’s first special economic zone.

The 32,000 sqm new venue will display ancient Shenzhen (prehistory to 1840), contemporary Shenzhen (1840-1949), Shenzhen reform and opening up (1978-2004) and folk culture from the Qing Dynasty to today.

“The museum is the only one in China that features the reform and opening up, which is the most important aspect,” Chen Wei, head of the Shenzhen Municipal Cultural Bureau, said at a news conference yesterday.

The museum has collected more than 1,000 exhibits, 1,200 photos and 120 historic documents to chronicle 30 years of China’s reform and opening up.

Among the exhibits are the Bao’an Land Reform Newspaper, the first stock certificate of modern China, the hammer used at the first land auction, China’s first foreign processing contract and the tree-planting spade that the late leader Deng Xiaoping used at Fairy Lake Botanical Garden.

The museum has two English-speaking guides for expatriate visitors as well. Recorded commentaries will be available using earphones in English, French, Japanese and Korean.

“We will later offer other languages such as German, Russian, Spanish and Arabic,” said Hou Lingya, head of the museum’s education and publicity department.

Digital technology has been widely used in each exhibition hall and visitors can view files by touching computer screens and additional information is available through multimedia.

Before entering the museum, visitors will receive a card at the entrance. These can be scanned over the screens on the areas they are interested in. The service center can make a DVD of exhibtion areas including information sought by visitors.

“We will charge for the service, but the price has not been decided yet,” Hou said.

The existing Shenzhen Museum building on Shennan Road Central will be used to exhibit ancient art. It has had an average of 4 million visitors a year since it was established in 1988.