“I have waited for the opening of the museum since its construction started. I’m so excited to be able to finally take a look at these national treasures.”

He said he could not travel to the Beijing Palace Museum during the Covid-19 pandemic, so he scrambled for a day ticket for the Hong Kong version as soon as bookings opened to the public.

“This is a rare opportunity with the central government loaning such artefacts to us,” he said, adding he was particularly interested in paintings and ceramics.

Also among the first to enter the venue was Jeffery Fu, 58, who works in finance. Like many other art lovers, he bought the HK$120 (US$15) ticket to see all of the nine exhibitions, especially two special displays featuring Chinese paintings and calligraphy.

Fu, who was living in eastern China’s Zhejiang province before coming to Hong Kong in 1997 for work, said he had visited the Beijing Palace Museum many times, but had been unable to find any places in Hong Kong where he could appreciate cultural relics and national treasures.

He said the new venue could serve as a window for Hongkongers to learn about Chinese culture. “I believe the Hong Kong Palace Museum can be a place where Hong Kong residents can have a better understanding of Chinese culture.”

Visitors on Sunday comprised a mix of the young and elderly, including families with children, as well as mainland Chinese and foreigners.

Doris Kan, a primary school teacher in her forties, was there with her two young children, husband and parents. “Our whole family is interested in Chinese history and culture,” she said.

She added that she once visited the Palace Museum in Beijing, which amazed her, but she did not have the chance to take her 10 year-old son and eight-year-old daughter there. She said her son was interested in Chinese history and eager to see ancient ceramics and the clothing of emperors.

“I took them here to let them learn about our Chinese history,” she said, adding she would take them to visit the Beijing version once the border reopened.

Hong Kong Palace Museum to open for 25th anniversary of city’s handover

There were also some visitors who came in hanfu outfits, traditional clothing of the Han Chinese, adding a special touch to the atmosphere.

Clad in navy blue with her hair done up in a traditional Chinese coiffure, Lily Lu, a 28-year-old English teacher, said she hoped to dive into Chinese culture through her museum visit, and was particularly interested in the clothing relics which could give her inspiration in hanfu design.

Lu, who also heads a hanfu group made up of more than 250 members, said she was amazed by the splendour of the Beijing Palace Museum which she visited previously, but felt the Hong Kong counterpart had its own uniqueness.

“Unlike the Beijing Palace Museum which gives a sense of history and culture, I’m surprised at the strong clash and crossover of Western and Chinese culture here,” she said.

Officials, including newly appointed Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Kevin Yeung Yun-hung, museum board chairman Bernard Chan and director Louis Ng Chi-wa were on site to welcome the first batch of visitors.

Yeung said the new museum provided opportunities for Hong Kong residents to appreciate the precious national artefacts from Beijing and learn about Chinese culture without having to travel to the capital.

“We hope to encourage more Hongkongers to visit the museum to better learn about Chinese culture and cultivate a sense of identity,” he said.

“I believe that in the future, the Hong Kong Palace Museum can show that under ‘one country, two systems’, Hong Kong can make use of its cultural advantages to better tell Chinese stories and become a milestone for arts and cultural exchanges between China and the rest of the world,” Yeung added.

Hong Kong Palace Museum to act as ‘window for promoting Chinese culture’

He said the museum could also become a magnet for foreign and mainland visitors, driving local tourism.

The museum, the city’s latest arts and cultural landmark located in the West Kowloon Cultural District, features nine galleries spanning 13,000 square metres of space across five floors. Among its collection are ink paintings, calligraphy, ceramics and other relics dating as far back as the 10th century.

A total of 914 artefacts came from the Palace Museum in Beijing, with 166 classified as grade one national treasures, marking the largest loan the museum has ever provided to another cultural institution outside the mainland. Most of the pieces are appearing in Hong Kong for the first time.

The museum received a total of about 6,500 visitors on Sunday. According to the Hong Kong museum, about 115,000 out of a total of some 140,000 tickets for July had been sold by Saturday since bookings opened on June 14. Tickets for August and later will be available on a weekly basis starting from July 12.

The museum will also give away 1,000 units of commemorative non-fungible token (NFT) with a specially designed ticket image to visitors.