Chapter 1056: It seems like they've found a treasure

Although the interior of the special train was top-notch, the railway in the 1980s was really not as good as it is in later years, and spending a long time on the train was really annoying.

Fortunately, the special train did not need to make any stops, so after spending 18 hours, at a little after 12 noon the next day, the train arrived at the Guodu Railway Station.

As soon as Xia Yugang got off the train, he was warmly welcomed on the platform by Director Liu Zhihe and the others, who had been waiting for a long time.

'Mr Xia, welcome back to the capital city. The train was bumpy the whole way, so I'm sorry if you suffered!'

Xia Yugang shook Liu Zhihe's hand and laughed lightly, 'What suffering? I'm from a poor family, and the train is much more comfortable than the boat I rode in when I was a child.'

'I should be the one to apologise. I'm really sorry to make you make a detour to pick me up.'

Liu Zhihe quickly said, 'Mr Xia, you are our guest of honour, and we should give you the highest level of hospitality. I hope you don't mind the simple conditions here.'

'No, no...'

After a few brief greetings, the awkwardness of not seeing each other for two years gradually melted away.

Liu Zhihe invited Xia Yu to get into the car, and the convoy headed for the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, where Xia Yu had stayed two years ago.

After Xia Yu had enjoyed a delicious lunch, he took a walk in the gardens of the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse to digest his meal, accompanied by Liu Zhihe the whole time.

'Mr Xia, the meeting is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 9:30. What are your plans for this afternoon? If you have any, please let me know, and I will do my best to arrange it,'

Liu Zhihe said to Xia Yu as they walked to a pavilion after their stroll.

Xia Yu is the VIP among VIPs from the mainland. While Xia Yu is in the capital, Liu Zhihe has only two tasks: to act as a liaison and to accompany Xia Yu so that he can stay comfortably and enjoyably in the capital.

As mentioned above, as long as Xia Yu's requests did not violate the principles, he would do his best to satisfy them. He also had special approval to get full cooperation from other departments at any time.

Xia Yu thought for a moment and said, 'Director Liu, can you take me out to explore the imperial capital?'

Liu Zhihe said without hesitation, 'Of course!'

'Now?'

'Yes!' Xia Yu nodded in response.

After that, Liu Zhihe immediately arranged for a vehicle to take Xia Yu on a tour of the imperial capital.

The imperial capital in 1981 was worlds apart from the future. There was no steel jungle like in the future, and the roads were basically lined with multi-storey buildings. There were basically no cars on the empty roads, and there were very few motorcycles. The streets were full of two-wheeled scooters.

It's not like Pengcheng in the south of the mainland, where there are already many cars on the road.

Xia Yu can understand the current situation in the imperial capital. Although it has been three years since the announcement of reform and opening up, the imperial capital is a special existence. It is the political power centre of the country, and there are too many people with different positions on the issue of economic development. The older generation's ideas have penetrated deep into their bones and cannot be easily changed.

'Hey, are we almost at Tiananmen Square?'

Looking at the somewhat familiar road, Xia Yu looked far into the distance and said with some surprise.

Liu Zhihe, sitting next to him, immediately said, 'Yes, we are almost there. Mr Xia, would you like to stop there?'

Xia Yu was about to say yes, but suddenly his eyes caught sight of a somewhat unusual building. He immediately asked Liu Zhihe, 'Director Liu, what is that place?'

'Oh, that is the Museum of the Chinese Revolution, which was formed in 1969 by the merger of the Chinese Revolutionary Museum and the Chinese History Museum,'

Liu Zhihe replied immediately, following Xia Yu's gaze.

Xia Yu was instantly interested and said to Liu Zhihe, 'Director Liu, let's go and have a look.'

'Okay!'

'Stop in front of the museum!'

Liu Zhihe responded, and immediately instructed the soldier driving the car.

Soon, the red car stopped in front of the Museum of Chinese Revolutionary History.

After Xia Yu got out of the car, he entered the museum under the guidance of Liu Zhihe, who also summoned the museum curator Yan Sihai, an elderly man in his fifties wearing glasses, to introduce the museum to Xia Yu.

Under Yan Sihai's introduction, Xia Yu learned some information about the Museum of the Chinese Revolution. This national museum in front of Tiananmen Square originated from the National Museum of History, which was first established in 1912. It was later renamed the Peking History Museum of the Chinese Research Institute in 1929, and then renamed the Didu History Museum after the founding of the People's Republic of China. In 1958, the state decided to establish the Museum of Chinese History on this basis, and then in September 1969 it merged with the Museum of the Chinese Revolution to become what it is today.

As the national museum in front of Tiananmen, it represents the face of Chinese culture to a large extent. After all, when foreigners come to the imperial capital, Tiananmen is almost a must-visit place.

Therefore, the collection in the Museum of the History of the Chinese Revolution is very rich. In addition to historical relics related to the revolution, there are also a wealth of historical relics. In Xia Yu's opinion, there are not a few national treasures, which can definitely surpass his current Kowloon Cultural Museum.

Walking along, he stopped in front of a door and looked at the words hanging on it, and he was a little surprised.

He saw five characters written on it – Foreign Guest Services Department.

Seeing Xia Yu stop, Yan Sihai volunteered to introduce, 'Mr Xia, Director Liu, this Foreign Guest Services Department mainly receives foreign guests and sells some paintings by painters.'

Xia Yu was a little surprised, 'Does the museum also sell paintings, ancient or modern?'

Yan Sihai was a little embarrassed by Xia Yu's thoughtless question, but since Liu Zhihe was also present, he realised that this was an opportunity to ask for funding to improve the museum's current situation, so he immediately said, 'Mr Xia, we are a museum, so we definitely don't sell ancient paintings. We mainly sell modern paintings here, providing a place for artists from the Academy of Fine Arts and the Fine Arts Association to sell their paintings and calligraphy.'

'Artists have to make a living too. Foreign guests who come to visit don't understand the situation in our country, and many of them will ask to buy some cultural items to take back with them. So we cooperate with the artists, so that they can make a living and the museum can earn some money to use for entertaining foreign guests.'

When Yan Sihai said this, Liu Zhihe looked a little embarrassed. He subconsciously glanced at Xia Yu, and noticed that Xia Yu didn't care at all, but instead looked interested.

At this moment, Xia Yu was really interested. There were quite a few masters among the artists of the time.

Masters such as Qi Baishi and Xu Beihong were no longer around, but masters such as Zhang Daqian, Li Kuchan, and Li Keran should still be alive, and he wondered if there were any of their calligraphy or paintings in there!

If there were, he wondered how much they would sell for now.

Thinking that the paintings of these masters in later generations could easily be worth tens of millions or even billions of dollars, he felt a little excited. Could there be a treasure inside?

Thinking about this, Xia Yu immediately said to Yan Sihai, 'Director Yan, can I go in and have a look?'