The opening ceremony of the China (Qufu) International Confucius Cultural Festival 2019 and the Confucius Museum was held on Sept 6th in Qufu, birthplace of the great philosopher in East China's Shandong province. Ji Bingxuan, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China, announced the opening of cultural festival. Gong Zheng, governor of Shandong province, and Liu Yuzhu, head of the National Cultural Heritage Administration, addressed the opening ceremony.
Gong Zheng said under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, Shandong will shoulder its own historical mission with strong cultural awareness and firm cultural confidence. At the same time, Shandong will step up great efforts to pursue innovation, revival, energizing and integration through the programs of studying and elucidating, upgrading, broadcasting and exchanging, thus striving for safeguarding and inheriting fine traditional Chinese culture and contributing to its creative evolution and innovative development.
Liu Yuzhu said that Shandong has taken effective measures to spread fine traditional Chinese culture and protect cultural heritages with fruitful results. It is hoped that Shandong could make full use of its cultural heritage resources to achieve new progress in protecting and utilizing cultural heritages especially revolutionary relics. .
During the opening ceremony, the inauguration ceremony of the Confucius Museum was held. Gong Zheng and Liu Yuzhu jointly unveiled the museum. Wang Yunpeng, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Congress of Shandong, presented donation certificate to Kong Chuichang, the 79th-generation descendant of Confucius. Yu Jie, vice governor of Shandong province, presided over the opening ceremony.
The Confucius Cultural Festival can be dated back to 1984 and it is held annually. The 36th Confucius Cultural Festival adopted the theme of “To Tell Chinese Story Well by virtue of Confucian Culture”. The Confucius Museum is located at No 100 Confucius Avenue in Qufu, where displayed most of artifacts in previous Confucius Temple. So far, it has received 232,000 visitors since its inauguration in November 26th, 2018.