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New Olympic museum inaugurated in Tianjin

By Guo Changdong (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-09-28 17:39

He Zhenliang (first R), honorary president of the Chinese Olympic Committee, plays the fou with Ching-kuo Wu, a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and president of the International Boxing Association.

A new Olympic museum, a member of the Olympic Museum Network, opened in Dagang district, Tianjin municipality Sunday.

The Tianjin Dagang Olympic Museum is designed and founded by Ching-kuo Wu, a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and president of the International Boxing Association. The IOC member from Taiwan, also a renowned architecture designer, is known on the Chinese mainland for his support of Beijing's applications to host the Olympic Games in 1993 and 2001.

Over 600 items from Wu's collection, including Olympic torches, medals, posters, stamps, badges as well as several fous, ancient Chinese bronze percussion instrument used at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics Games, are being exhibited in the 5,000-square-meter modern building.

"I have been collecting everything related to the Olympic Games in my 30 years' engagement in the games. Each item was an effort to get it and has a story in it," Wu said.

The most precious item displayed at the museum is a manuscript of Pierre De Coubertin, father of the modern Olympics. Twenty-seven pages of the manuscript record Coubertin's experiences in China in the 1920s.

Wu said it took him over one year and several setbacks to buy it from a German collector.

The Dagang museum is the second Olympic museum in China after the Xiamen Olympic Museum in Xiamen, Fujian province, which was also founded and is currently headed by Wu.

"Olympic relics are important carriers of the Olympic culture. I want to share them with everyone to promote the Olympic culture and spirit," he said.

Jacques Rogge, president of the IOC, and Antonio Samaranch, former president of the IOC, sent letters to congratulate the inauguration.

"The museum, integrated sports, arts and culture, will inspire Olympic dreams in young people's hearts," Rogge said in his letter.

He Zhenliang, honorary president of the Chinese Olympic Committee, and Jiang Xiaoyu, executive vice-president of the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee, attended the inauguration.