Hong Kong’s newest arts and cultural landmark, the Hong Kong Palace Museum (HKPM) located in the West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD), officially opened its doors to the public this week.

An unprecedented loan show from the Palace Museum in Beijing's Forbidden City is among the largest and finest grouping of objects ever lent to another cultural institution since 1925. 

The 914 loans were selected from over 1.86 million works in the Palace Museum’s collection. Among them, 166 works (approximately 18% of the loans) are classified as grade-one “national treasures." Most of the objects on loan are exhibited in Hong Kong for the first time.

One of the HKPM opening exhibitions, The Making of Masterpieces: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy from the Palace Museum, brings together 35 rare and iconic works dating back to the Tang and Sung dynasties.

Located along the Victoria Harbour waterfront, the HKPM is a seven-story building designed by Hong Kong-based Rocco Design Architects Associates, with nine galleries specifically designed for thematic and special exhibitions.

The Palace Museum treasures are shown in rotation in the HKPM’s opening exhibitions, displayed alongside more than 100 works on loan from local museums and cultural institutions. The museum will also display 13 prized art objects loaned from Musée du Louvre in Paris, commemorating cultural and knowledge exchanges between China and other countries.

The cost of construction and operation of HKPM was covered by an HKD 3.5 billion (USD 446 million) donation by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust.