Episode 130 - Along the River During the Qingming Festival

[The Rainbow Bridge and a closer-look of it: portion of the Qingming River as reproduced in the museum brochure]

My family visited the Hong Kong Museum of Art and saw the "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" (the "Qingming River") today.

The Qingming River is a painting of over 5 metres in length. It depicts in details what's happening in the Bian City and the outlying areas along the Bian River during a Qingming festival. It was drawn at the time of the Song Dynasty in ancient China.

The Qingming River exhibition is one of the hot events in town in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Reunification of Hong Kong with China.

It is said that the Qingming River will only be available for public viewing once every 10 years. Further, it is the first time the painting is displayed in Hong Kong. Hence, the ticket office of the Museum is always line up with people.

My family have the Museum annual passes so we did not need to buy tickets. We arrived the Museum at 11 a.m. but were not able to view the painting immediately. As there were too many visitors, we only managed to get registered for a time slot at 4 pm.

In addition to the Qingming River, there are 15 great paintings being exhibited in another exhibition hall in the Museum. We took advantage of the time in between to visit these paintings and have a lunch as well.

As there are too many visitors, the viewing session in respect of the Qingming River is limited to 5 minutes for each visitor. We were only able to view the painting for one and a half round within these 5 minutes. To my and Judith's surprise, both Gogo and Chiu Yin were excited to see the painting.

I have seen a copy of another version of the Qingming River. Such version was an imitation drawn at the time of the Qing Dynasty. The Qing version is more colourful. However, there are a number of differences between the two. The major difference is the "Rainbow Bridge" (see above) which flies over the Bian River in the middle of the painting. The Song version features a wooden bridge but the Qing version features a stone bridge. Further, the positions and conditions of the boats near the bridge and the body languages of the various characters around make the Song version a more attractive piece of work.

Outside the viewing room is a large hall displaying detailed explanations on various portions of the painting to enable visitors to have a deeper understanding of this great artwork. The brochure provided by the Museum also gives a good briefing on the contents of and background information in relation to the painting.

The Museum did a very good job. Although the viewing time was limited, the arrangement was good and the staff were helpful.

We received a small souvenir before leaving the exhibition hall. It is a miniature scroll of the painting!