A gold seal bearing the official title of Emperor Daoguang (1782-1850) while he was crown prince, is among the most precious of the exhibits. On top of a square plinth sits a legendary creature with the head, claws and tail of a dragon but the body of a turtle.

The ornament on the gold seal is said to be one of nine sons of the dragon and a titan of some kind. It has often been used as the mount for a stele or seal.

A gift from his father, the seal pairs with a four-fold gold leaflet, inscribed with the decree that the crown prince was given his title in the languages of Mongolia, Manchu, Tibet and Chinese.

“The leaflet is the only one of its kind. . . a precious historical document,” said Guo Xuelei of the Shenzhen Museum.

Other precious antiques include four jade tablets inscribed with Emperor Qianlong’s calligraphy. A big follower of artist Wang Xizhi, the emperor tried to mimic his style. Wang is believed to have been the greatest Chinese calligrapher of all time.

A red embroidered tapestry used as a decoration at some royal weddings gives people some idea of how delicate hand craft could be. The embroidery depicts more than 300 children lighting firecrackers, playing games and riding in carriages among other activities. Each has a different posture with a different facial expression.

While the exhibits reflect high artistic value and reveal the luxurious lifestyle of the royals, a large proportion also relates to the strong influence of Buddhism on the royals.

On a wall of the exhibition halls hang several pictures of the imperial residence taken by expat photographers hired by the Qing court.

They show several halls originally in Zhongnanhai (the location of Chinese Central Government today) where the emperors lived. The buildings and people who lived there are all gone today.

Being displayed publicly for the first time, the pictures were discovered among the piles of antiques taken to Chongqing after the Japanese occupied East China.

After the Japanese took Shanhaiguan Pass in January 1933, it was decided that the antiques kept in the Forbidden City should be transported to the South. In the three months that followed, more than 10,000 boxes of antiques were sent to Shanghai and kept four years in a Catholic church in the French Settlement.

The treasures were sent to Nanjing Museum in 1937. The Japanese attacked nearby Shanghai on Aug. 13 in the same year and the antiques had to be taken to a safer place. Then began another long march that finally landed the antiques in Chongqing, temporary capital of China at the time.

As a legacy of that period of history, wooden cases used to transport the antiques are still stored in a warehouse at Nanjing Museum today.

When the Japanese surrendered in August 1945, the antiques returned to Nanjing.

“Culture is the living spirit of a nation. Preserving the antiques was important to preserve our culture and the roots of the Chinese people,” Hu said.

The antiques continued to travel after the Chinese civil war broke out.

Between 1948 and 1949, nearly 3,000 boxes of Qing court antiques were taken to Taiwan.

Of the rest, most were returned to the Forbidden City and a small part of the collection remained in Nanjing.