Above: Zheng Xinmiao (first left), head of the Palace Museum in Beijing, and his Taipei counterpart Chou Kung-shin (second left) view a porcelain vase, part of a joint exhibition of Qing Dynasty imperial artifacts from the Beijing's and Taipei's Palace Museum collections.

Below: A museum worker briefs visitors about a portrait of Yongzheng, an emperor of the Qing Dynasty, during a pre-show visit for reporters at the National Palace Museum in Taipei yesterday.

The exhibit, which opens today, features 246 artifacts from the 18th-century Emperor Yongzheng's time. Taipei and Beijing hailed the first joint exhibit by their two leading museums in six decades as yet another sign of the rapidly improving ties between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits.

AFP

(HK Edition 10/07/2009 page2)