"Night of the Forbidden City" Exhibition held in Brussels, Belgium

BRUSSELS, May 27 (Xinhua) -- With its colorful buildings, landscape gardens and spacious squares kept intact, there is little about China's cultural heritage that sparks one's imagination more than the dazzling history of the Palace Museum in Beijing.

To encapsulate the richness and uniqueness of the Forbidden City, the China Cultural Center in Brussels hosts an Exhibition of Creative Products Inherited from the Palace Museum in Beijing, from May 25 until June 15.

The cultural center in Brussels is a true benchmark for promoting China's cultural assets overseas. To that end, the Center regularly organizes art exhibitions, performances, movie screenings, seminars, lectures, workshops, and Chinese language courses.

Over the course of this exhibition about the Forbidden City, it will bring a part of the Palace Museum to Brussels and share the unique history with the European audience.

As part of the opening day of the exhibition, and to mark the beginning of the festivities celebrating the 2018 Chinese Culture Week, the "Night of the Forbidden City" was held Friday night in the Cultural Center in Brussels, in which collections of the Palace Museum were on display to all visitors.

During five centuries (1416-1911), the Forbidden City in Beijing served as the seat of supreme power in China. Nowadays, the Forbidden City has no longer an administrative function, but has become China's top 3 tourist attraction.

In 1925, The Palace Museum was installed on the premises of the Imperial Palace. Today, it is regarded as one of the five most prestigious museums worldwide for the rich variety in its highly systematic art collection of exceptional quality that bears testimony to the imperial court culture from the fourteenth to the early twentieth century.

With the profusion of elements from the imperial court culture of the Ming and the Qing dynasties, combined with the Forbidden City's architecture, the Museum's art collection, and creatively-designed cultural products reflecting stories of its past and present, the Museum is gaining popular appeal with younger consumers.

In 2016, the Chinese cultural center launched the first edition of Chinese Culture Week with activities to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the birth of Chinese writer Tang Xianzu and iconic British play writer William Shakespeare. In 2017, the theme of the China Culture Week was cultural heritage.

To mark the occasion of this year's 2018 edition, visitors from around the world will be able to enjoy and discover innovative Chinese cultural products through events such as exhibitions, forums and seminars.