Chapter 371 Museum Opening and Governor’s Appreciation

Chapter 371 Museum Opening and Governor’s Appreciation

Chapter 371 Museum Opening and Governor’s Appreciation

Governor Robert Black said with a smile: "Mr. Yang, the opening of the Hong Kong Museum is also a major event in Hong Kong, so we will naturally come."

"Mr. Governor is right." Yang Wendong smiled and then gestured, "Ladies and gentlemen, the museum will open at ten o'clock. There must be a lot of people here today, so let's go in and take a look. There are only a few staff members inside now."

The opening of the Hong Kong Museum was also promoted through the media. After all, it is a commercial organization and needs to make a profit. Not to mention how much money, but at least it can maintain its own operations. Whether it is renting or maintaining antiques, as well as employee salaries, water and electricity, etc., all cost money.

Naturally, Barry agreed: "Okay."

Afterwards, several people walked into the museum under the guidance of the staff.

There are some large antiques in the hall, such as a chariot from the Warring States Period, a bronze tripod from the Han Dynasty, a long sword from the Tang Dynasty, and so on.

There are not many of them, but each one is large and is surrounded by protective glass or railings to avoid unnecessary damage.

On the walls on both sides, there are antiques that tell the history of the corresponding dynasties, which can be regarded as a simple introduction.

A female staff member was also telling the historical stories of these antiques and the corresponding dynasties. Yang Wendong was listening beside her. He knew these things, but the British foreigners did not know. Even though they had been in Hong Kong for a long time and were proficient in the local language, they were not very clear about the history.

The group walked and learned about the history of Hong Kong, and then came to a side door. The staff introduced: "Governor, Mr. Yang, this is the history of Hong Kong."

Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Then go in and take a look."

After everyone entered, there was emerald red light shining on the sides of the passage, and on both sides were historical events since the founding of Hong Kong.

Of course, this is still the British colonial era, so some things are not described, but a neutral mode is adopted.
Furthermore, the history of Hong Kong a hundred years ago is not important, and many people are not very interested in it. The focus of the Hong Kong history section starts from 1941, the year when the Japanese came.
Although they were of different races, many British officers died defending Hong Kong at that time. Regardless of whether their purpose was for the British or Chinese side, they were also considered heroes. Therefore, the museum also specially collected the names of more than 2000 martyrs and recorded them in carvings.

One of the British officers who died and one of the Chinese resistance members have a statue each, which is permanently commemorated here.

Robert Black and others also bowed to the martyrs, and then jumped into the next content, which was the development of Hong Kong 45 years later. These records were standard, describing the name of each governor and his achievements during his tenure, as well as some major events and policies in Hong Kong's social and economic aspects.

After that, it comes to the 60s, which focuses on describing the process of water shortage and the various policies made by the current Governor Robert Black to solve the water problem. There is also a portrait of Robert Black hanging on the wall.

"This portrait is very good." The future Governor-General Trench seemed a little envious when he saw this.

Bai Liji laughed and said, "Haha, the back of this museum will also record future major events, and future governors will all be recorded in it."

This was a verbal agreement between him and Yang Wendong, to highlight his political achievements and portraits in the museum. It would be difficult for others to do the same. One of the reasons why he was highlighted was the severe drought, which had a great impact on people. The museum could naturally record it, and the excuse was to teach future generations to save water.

Trench smiled and said, "Okay, I hope I can leave a mark here in the future."

Officials or wealthy people, after achieving their goals in this field or when they get older, generally want to leave their names in history so that future generations will praise them. This sense of accomplishment is enough to drive anyone crazy.

This kind of thing did not exist in Hong Kong originally. Generally speaking, most Hong Kong people can only remember the previous governors. If you go out and ask anyone now who the governor was in the 30s, it is estimated that 99.99% of people don’t know.

But now that we have a museum, and in the future there will be countless Hong Kong citizens and even overseas tourists coming to visit, this is the only chance. However, this museum is controlled by a Chinese. Even if he becomes the Governor of Hong Kong in the future, he cannot force people to write anything, as that would only make people laugh.

At this time, Yang Wendong said: "Don't worry, Governor, every Governor will leave his name here, and future Hong Kong citizens will also see it here."

"That's good." Bai Liji smiled.

He understood that Yang Wendong now had a chip that was of some use by taking advantage of this opportunity. Although it would not threaten anyone, everyone would also want to gain some benefits in this regard.

After exiting the Hong Kong History Exhibition Hall, you will enter the exhibition halls of several famous dynasties in Chinese history, namely: Qin, Han, Three Kingdoms, Tang, Song, and Ming;

These dynasties are quite famous, so they are also the main exhibition halls of the first phase of the museum. The others will be discussed later.

After everyone visited one by one, Robert White said: "Although I have known for a long time that there were many dynasties in ancient China, after seeing the whole thing today, I realized that the history is so long and there are so many stories."

"Yes." Yang Wendong smiled and said, "And what we have here is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the entire history. The antiques and cultural relics here are just a drop in the bucket."

Only a small number of the cultural relics in the exhibition hall were purchased by the exhibitors themselves, and the rest were rented from the mainland. They are mainly good antiques that are not sold internally, because mainland laws clearly stipulate that many levels of cultural relics are not allowed to be traded or exported.

If it weren't for the fact that it could rely on leasing, the museum might not be able to collect these cultural relics. But the good thing is that the rented cultural relics can be replaced continuously, which is also a good thing for the museum.

It is a pity that the Terracotta Warriors had not been discovered at that time, otherwise their introduction would definitely cause a sensation in Hong Kong, and it is estimated that many overseas tourists would come to Hong Kong specifically to see the Terracotta Warriors.

Trench smiled and said, "If I have the opportunity to go to the mainland, I will also visit the museums there."

In the 60s, the mainland did not prevent outsiders from entering. Some people engaged in trade or officials from other countries were allowed to enter as long as they had reasonable requirements and made formal applications.

Robert Black nodded and said, "Indeed, you can go and have a look." Yang Wendong said, "Governor, there are some British or other Commonwealth cultural relics over there. You can go and have a look."

Although the majority of Hong Kong people are Chinese, there are also many British people. In addition, the British rule in Hong Kong means that their museums must also have British cultural elements.
The director of the museum also specially bought some ordinary cultural relics from the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth regions. They were not very valuable, and the truly precious ones were not available. It would be a waste to put them in a place like Hong Kong, so Yang Wendong did not take it too seriously.

"Okay." Robert Black and Trench were very interested.

In this way, time soon came to 10 o'clock, and Yang Wendong and the two governors of Hong Kong also arrived at the entrance of the museum. At this moment, there were not only the media outside, but also a large number of ordinary citizens who came to visit the museum.

There were so many people, so densely packed, the number of people was even greater than Yang Wendong had imagined.
The opening ceremony officially began. The museum director Xu Qiusheng came forward to speak first, followed by the Governor of Hong Kong, Robert Black, who was invited to the stage to speak. Then several people including Yang Wendong cut the ribbon together.

When the red cloth fell, the museum officially opened.
However, if you want to get in, you still have to queue up, and the museum has already made arrangements, with countless zigzag iron guardrails to control the crowd one by one.

When Robert Black and Trench Trench, who were still outside, saw that such a large crowd had been effectively controlled, they said in surprise: "Mr. Yang, your method is really good. You only used some railings to separate the crowd and prevent trampling."

"Yes." Yang Wendong nodded.

He didn't know whether this kind of queuing pattern existed overseas, but it didn't exist in Hong Kong. Previously, there was a bank run at Liu Chongxing Bank, where there were so many people that dozens of police officers came to one branch but couldn't maintain order, and it almost caused a stampede.

When my shopping mall opened before, there weren’t so many people. After all, there are too many shopping malls in Hong Kong, so I didn’t use this trick. Now the attraction of museums is much stronger, so I was prepared.

Trelinche also praised: "This is a very low-cost but highly effective method. It seems that I will need to work hard to promote it in the future."

"Yes, many shopping malls or banks can prepare some, and this thing itself is not expensive." Yang Wendong said with a smile.

In a little over a year, Hang Seng Bank will be faced with a run, and the scale of this run will be far greater than the previous run on Liu Chong Hing Bank. If HSBC had not taken over in the end, I am afraid that Hang Seng Bank would have had the same ending, even though Hang Seng Bank had not had any problems before.

In addition to Hang Seng Bank, many other Chinese banks were also subject to bank runs. Ultimately, this incident led to the complete decline of the gradually rising Chinese banks, which did not begin to recover until the 80s.

"Not bad." Trench nodded.

Afterwards, the two governors chatted with each other for a while, and then Robert Black said, "Mr. Yang, the museum is open now. We have other things to do, so we'll stop here today."

"Okay, I'll see you two off." Yang Wendong said politely. He himself had nothing else to do. If the Governor of Hong Kong was not here, it wouldn't matter whether he came today or not.

After seeing off the two governors, Yang Wendong returned to the entrance of the museum, mainly because there were already many people queuing at the main entrance.

The museum director Xu Qiusheng walked over quickly and said, "Mr. Yang, let's go in through the side door staff passage."

"Okay." Yang Wendong nodded and asked, "Is the room full?"

The two walked towards the side door, and Xu Qiu Sheng replied, "Yes, in just a short while, the number of people inside exceeded 2500, reaching the museum's limit, so the entrance can only intercept the crowd, wait for some people to come out, and then let the rest in."

"Well, OK." Yang Wendong smiled, glanced at the crowd in front of the main entrance, and said, "There are too many people. Arrange people to sell water and food, or newspapers and books, beside the line. Otherwise, too many people will be thirsty or bored, and conflicts will easily arise."

In the past life, people queuing were playing with their phones, so as long as they were not thirsty, it was not a big problem. But in this era, we can only stand there like fools. If people are too bored, there may be conflicts. Fortunately, it is not very hot now, otherwise it will be more likely to trigger a bad temper.

Xu Qiusheng nodded and agreed: "Okay, I will ask the vendors around to deliver the goods immediately. This may become a new profit point in the future."

"Not really. This museum is unlikely to stay this busy forever." Yang Wendong said, "Unless Hong Kong's tourism industry develops in the future, more people from outside will come."

Although the cultural relics in the museum will be replaced as much as possible, it cannot be done at a high frequency. Therefore, the frequency of local people coming to visit in the future will inevitably be very low. If the museum wants to do better business, it can only do business with overseas tourists or business people.

Fortunately, by the end of the 60s, Hong Kong's tourism industry was about to develop rapidly. With its own hotels, shopping malls and museums, the city was able to get a piece of the tourism business.

After entering from the side door, Yang Wendong came to the second floor of the museum. This is an office space and tourists are not allowed to enter. You can directly see the crowd below from above.

Many people were gradually checking the information about the cultural relics and appreciating them, while some were holding cameras and taking pictures for people everywhere.

Xu Qiusheng introduced: "Mr. Yang, considering that many people in Hong Kong don't have cameras nowadays, we have launched a business here, charging customers to take photos, and after the photos are developed, we will send them to their addresses;

This way, they will have more fun, and the family will have a memory, especially those with children, and we can also earn more income, killing two birds with one stone.”

"Well, that's a good idea." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Try to find ways to meet the various needs of guests in the museum, or create some needs. Only in this way can we attract people to come here continuously."

"Okay, Mr. Yang." Xu Qiu Sheng agreed.

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(End of this chapter)