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A glimpse of Toronto (visit the Royal Ontario Museum)
The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is the leading international museum in Canada and the fifth largest museum in North America. It is located in Brewer Street, north of Queen's Park.

After passing by several times, the new annex of the museum-"Lijin Crystal Palace" attracted people's attention. 165438+1bought a ticket online in early October.

"Liqin Crystal Palace" is a Jewish museum in Berlin, 9 1 1. Another masterpiece by the deconstructionist Daniel Riboskin, the designer of the Freedom Tower, is said to have the iconic angular aesthetics and crystal shape. It's done on paper towels.

The building covers an area of 6.5438+0.75 million square feet, and the roof is covered with aluminum and glass. It has a new two-story main structure, which can accommodate seven exhibition halls, two special exhibition areas, a new dining area and a new main entrance hall.

Like other museums, there are staff at the entrance to distribute map guides in various languages. What we asked for is the Chinese version.

Walking into the museum, we were greeted by a huge dinosaur skeleton from ancient times. It should be called Liang Long. Its long neck allows it to reach the leaves on the tree and fill its huge belly.

In the hall of the museum, murals on both sides of the wall introduce history.

In the middle is a dinosaur skeleton.

The corridor on the right side of the hall is the China and Asia Exhibition Area, also known as the Bishop William Charles White Memorial Exhibition Hall.

1897 At the beginning of this year, William Charles White, a 24-year-old Canadian, came to China in the name of the Anglican Church to preach, send doctors and detoxify in Fujian, Henan and other places. At the same time, he also bought China cultural relics and shipped them back to the Royal Ontario Museum.

The following three lifelike colored wooden Buddhist sculptures, from Daning, Shanxi, were made in the Yuan Dynasty (about AD 1300).

Guanyin sculpture made in Jin Dynasty (about AD 1 195) in Linfen, Shanxi, was invited to Hongdong County, Pingyang Prefecture. The Bodhisattva Samantabhadra who accompanied him was Amin woodcarving in Yongji, Shaanxi.

The following is a Buddhist mural of the Yuan Dynasty in the13rd century, occupying a whole wall.

Later, I learned that it was The Story of Maitreya Buddha, with a width of 1 1.6m and a height of 5.8m It was painted by Zhu Hezhang, a famous painter in southern Shaanxi in the Yuan Dynasty, and it was also one of the best ancient temple murals in China after the Tang Dynasty.

The composition is symmetrical, with Maitreya Buddha and Saint in the middle, two disciples of one Buddha and four Bodhisattvas, with a woman and a man's tonsure on the left and right sides.

1925, the portrait of Maitreya was cut into more than 60 pieces by antique dealers and stripped from Xinghua Temple.

1928, the bishop of Henan diocese of China Anglican Church and the Canadian sent an urgent telegram to Gu, the director of the Royal Museum of Ontario, suggesting to raise money to buy murals quickly. Under the mediation of William Charles White, the murals were sold to the museum for 5000 yuan, and exported from Tianjin in the following year 1 month. They were divided into 63 boxes and transshipped to Toronto via Boston.

After careful splicing by local artists and careful restoration by Stott of Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University, the top American cultural relic restoration expert, this masterpiece of China Yuan Dynasty temple mural settled in a foreign country and opened in the Royal Ontario Museum on 1933, becoming the treasure of the town museum.

These two Yuan Dynasty-style murals are called "Yuan Chao Tu", and their fate is also bumpy. Japanese businessmen smuggled them out of China and sold them to Canadians. Their original temple and the time when it was stolen are unknown. After the Royal Ontario Museum purchased this mural on 1936, it was basically restored to its original appearance after many repairs.

These two paintings depict the magnificent scenes of Taoist worship of the gods. Most of the statues are half-sided, facing the central altar from east to west, and their style and image are very similar to the murals of Sanqing Hall in Yongle Palace.

Taoist immortals, lined up in a line, marched in a misty fairyland, standing above the clouds, with fairy fog lingering behind them. West wall painting 3 1 god, East wall painting 28 gods, civil and military, men and women, master and slave, all dressed in luxury, elegant.

There are three main gods painted on both walls, and the western wall is Laozi, Donghua Dijun and Jin Mu. The east wall is the Arctic Emperor, Jade Emperor and Houdi. They are tall and stand out among the gods. The murals are rich in color, smooth in line drawing and magnificent in overall effect.

Two embroidered screens separated by glass can only be seen from a distance.

Are these Japanese exhibits?

On the left side of the hall are two independent stairs, with a tall aboriginal totem pole on each side to accompany you from the first floor to the third floor.

On the second floor, through the middle corridor of the dome hall, you can reach the "Treasure of the Earth" museum, which is very large and has rich exhibits.

Canada is vast and sparsely populated, but it is rich in resources, ranking third in the world in land area, and rich in various natural resources, especially mineral resources, with nickel, copper, zinc, aluminum, asbestos, diamonds, cadmium, titanium concentrate and salt among the top in the world.

Amethyst is a relatively expensive gem in crystal. In ancient Greece and Rome, it was regarded as a precious gem. In the Middle Ages, it was decorated with a crown or an archbishop's ring. Princess Charlotte, the wife of George III of England, once bought an amethyst necklace at a high price.

Canada is not the world producer of amethyst, but near Sander Bay in northern Ontario, there are treasures of crystal gems everywhere, including the panorama of amethyst mine, the largest amethyst mine in North America.

At first, the crystals produced here were sent to all parts of North America for garden design, and then opened to the public, allowing tourists to treasure in an 80-acre mining area, and they could take them away after buying them.

Canadian jasper is a national treasure of Canada, which is mainly produced in the mountains north of Vancouver. Its hardness is about 6.5 degrees Mohs, and it belongs to a kind of nephrite.

Arctic jade is the top grade of Canadian jasper, a kind of jasper produced in the Arctic Circle, and the best of jasper.

Big meteorite.

At the other end of the second floor is the "Biodiversity: Life Crisis" exhibition hall.

All kinds of flowers, birds, animals, insects and fish are Canadian aborigines. Until now, they are still raising the human beings in this land and living in harmony with them.

Some of the creatures on display here are extinct, and some are on the verge of life crisis, warning human beings that protecting nature means protecting themselves.

The main visitors to the biology museum are parents and children.

Tired of watching, I spread my own rug everywhere, and I can sit and lie down and get in close contact with all kinds of creatures.

The fish had a whim and swam around in the air. What a science fiction!

On the touch screen, you can quickly browse all kinds of exhibits.

Animals with their backs to the window can also sit and rest.

Walking into the bat cave, the light is very dark and I can't see anything clearly. Hundreds of bats kept chirping, and the atmosphere was really scary.

It is said that this bat cave was discovered in Jamaica and was later collected.

In front of the Bat Cave is the "Biodiversity Physical Operation Area".

Small insects and animals within reach are children's favorite.

Put small insects or your own fingers under the instrument to see more clearly.

A glimpse of birds' living habits

You can take the exhibits in your hand, look at them carefully, and the instructor will take the initiative to explain them to you.

Baby China, who is still walking unsteadily, feels this and pats that for a while, and everything is novel.

Maple leaf is the symbol of Canada. Here are white paper and colored pens. Children can spread paper on maple leaves and draw pictures at will.

An ancient tree with a diameter of more than one meter

In a part of the corridor, there are some China exhibits. Dunhuang's beautiful left arm and left leg are touching and eye-catching.

Bronze Buddha statue

Terracotta army

On the edge of the Terracotta Warriors, there is a row of ancient Chinese costumes, and several little girls are trying them on and taking pictures excitedly.

Soldiers of all ages crowded the whole small exhibition hall. They vividly reproduced the war history of Canada.

Without glasses, you can reach out and play with them.

Further on is the Discovery Hall, which features mammals and dinosaurs.

In the Mesozoic era (Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous) more than 230 million years ago, a large number of reptiles lived on land, so it was also called the "reptile era". At that time, the earth's climate was warm, and there were forests everywhere. Reptiles had enough food, and gradually prospered, differentiating into different kinds of reptiles, and gradually became turtles, crocodiles, snakes and lizards today, as well as mammals all over the world today.

mammal

Tyrannosaurus rex is the most striking.

Dinosaurs are the largest class of all reptiles, mainly inhabiting woodland or open areas in lakeshore plains (or coastal plains). At that time, the air was warm and humid and food was easy to find, so dinosaurs ruled the earth for 65.438+0.6 billion years.

But for some reason, they suddenly became extinct in a short time 65 million years ago. Today, people only see a large number of dinosaur fossils left at that time.

Triceratops or Pentagonal Dragons?

There are many reasons for the extinction of dinosaurs, and humans are still exploring.