In his opening speech, Chinese Ambassador to New Zealand Chen Mingming said the exhibition was a very important event in the cultural exchanges between the two countries over the past two decades, as it offered the New Zealand public a rare opportunity to view over 200 historical artifacts from China.

He said the artifacts and treasures displayed in the exhibitionare only a tiny part of China's Shaanxi archeological treasure house. He expressed the hope that the exhibition would generate more interest in New Zealanders and that they would visit Shaanxi someday and personally experience the fascination of China's greathistory and culture.

The exhibition is the most important one of ancient Chinese antiquities to visit New Zealand since the exhibition of Entombed Warriors in 1986. It displays numerous life-sized terracotta figures -- including a full-sized horse -- and contains a marvelous wealth of terracotta tomb human and animal figurines, jades, bronzes and other precious relics from the ancient Han (206BC--220 AD) and Qin (221 BC--206 BC) Dynasties.

The Auckland Gallery is the only New Zealand venue for this major touring exhibition which is arranged by Praxis Exhibitions Australia, in cooperation with China's Shaanxi provincial Culture Relics Bureau. It will be open to the public from 17 January to 9 March.

The exhibition comes to Auckland from the Western Australian Museum in Perth and will travel on to the Australian Museum in Sydney, the new Melbourne Museum and the Museum of South Australia.

(People's Daily January 17, 2003)