Riding the wind of rebirth

The Overseas Chinese Hotel is located by West Lake.

The most impressive thing about the Overseas Chinese Hotel is its location. It is situated on the west side of West Lake and has even incorporated a section of the lake shore into its own area. Lotus flowers have been planted along the lake, and a "waterside pavilion" has been built. The lawn on the north side of the hotel extends into the lake, winding its way back to the lawn in front of the hotel from the south side. Now, strolling on it, one can wander in the lotus breeze and enjoy the beautiful scenery of "lotuses blooming on both sides of the face".

In the center of the waterside pavilion is a small pavilion. Sitting in the pavilion, you can enjoy the beautiful scenery of West Lake. In the distance, directly opposite, is the famous scenic spot of West Lake - Gushan Island.

The hotel was established in 1959. The main building has five floors and the annex has four floors, with a building area of ​​12,500 square meters. At that time, it was the most famous foreign-related hotel in Hangzhou.

Zhou Zhi has now acquired it for 200 million yuan and plans to transform it into a comprehensive private museum integrating functions such as museum display, jewelry sales, foreign reception, and group leisure travel.

Because of its comprehensive nature, naming it a "museum" was not quite appropriate. So, Zhouzhi named it "Zhirongtang," imitating the layout of ancient private gardens that hosted guests.

The word "Zhi Rong" is actually a shortcut taken by Zhouzhi, but it still comes from Lao Tzu's "Tao Te Ching". It comes from the same article as "Guan Fu". "Guan Fu" refers to the cognition and learning of laws, while "Zhi Rong" refers to the leap in improvement brought about by mastering the laws.

The purpose of “observing its return” is to “understand the constant nature” and ultimately “attain the Way”; the prerequisite for “understanding the constant nature” is to “observe its return”, which means first grasping the entire cycle of the development of things.

That is, "Knowing the constant allows for tolerance; tolerance leads to impartiality; impartiality leads to wholeness; wholeness leads to heaven; heaven leads to the Way; the Way leads to longevity; and one will not perish even after death."

The fact that Zhouzhi removed those two characters indicates that his private museum shares a common concept with Mr. Ma's museum.

The overall layout remains unchanged; the L-shaped main building structure is still preserved, with the main building having four floors and the annex having five floors.

However, Zhouzhi chose to completely open up the four floors below the main building and the annex into one space, thus creating a huge four-story general-purpose area.

The first floor is the visitor guidance area, which includes three huge modern handicraft exhibition areas: a craft shopping supermarket, a Hetian jade carving exhibition area, a Nan Hong jade carving exhibition area, and a jadeite carving exhibition area.

These three sections contain works from various studios at the Suzhou Jade Carving Base. The high-end pieces are naturally those by numerous masters, complete with certificates, serial numbers, and even trophies and group photos. These works can easily cost tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of yuan, and it's not expected that anyone will actually buy them at the counter. They mainly serve as a display of craftsmanship.

This will also boost sales of mid-to-low-end products.

Mid-to-low-end products mainly refer to products mass-produced by various jade carving factories, such as small pendants, safety buckles, and beaded strings.

The jadeite display area also has its own unique features. It mainly sells another major category of jadeite, namely those with good texture but no color.

To be precise, it refers to jadeite systems that do not have the current mainstream color schemes, namely jadeite green and emerald green. For example, "lake blue", "icy snowflake cotton", "green water", "blue water", "purple water" and other varieties.

These types of jadeite are currently very inexpensive, but after being carved by Suzhou masters, they have become exquisite works of art. Of course, in order to elevate the level of the exhibition area, Zhou Zhi commissioned Lin Wanqiu to purchase a lot of top-quality "Imperial Green" and "Ice Yang Green" from her stepfather to decorate the scene, but they are not for sale to the public and mainly serve as display pieces.

Overall, the high-end products in these three areas are out of reach for most people, leaving them only to admire them from afar. However, the mid-to-low-end products are not unattainable. For example, a Suzhou-style belt buckle in lake blue is now priced at around 2,000 yuan, and even a small Hetian jade Pixiu is priced similarly, which is not out of reach for the average tourist if they grit their teeth.

As for red agate safety buckles, small pendants, and small bracelets costing a few hundred yuan, you can buy them without hesitation.

The crafts exhibition area mainly sells and displays craft products, such as folding fans, Suzhou embroidery, Shu brocade, lacquerware, and silk cheongsams. Zhouzhi doesn't expect this area to make money; its main purpose is to provide a place to display and showcase the many intangible cultural heritage products from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Sichuan, letting people know that China has so many rich categories of intangible cultural heritage.

The most impressive part is that there is an area for ivory carvings.

Ivory carving is one of China's traditional art forms, with a history dating back to the Shang Dynasty. Archaeological work is still underway at Sanxingdui in Sichuan, where the large ivory pit has not yet been excavated. However, a considerable amount of ivory hoarded by ancient people has been unearthed in other places.

Since 1989, CITES has imposed a complete ban on the international trade in ivory, and China is a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

However, there is no complete ban on ivory trade in China at present, because there is still a considerable amount of ivory in stock in China, as well as ivory auctioned back from four African countries.

Fortunately, the approval and labeling management is becoming increasingly strict, and by 2017, it will be completely banned.

Given the current difficulty ivory carving factories in Suzhou, Hangzhou, Beijing, and Guangdong are facing in obtaining raw materials, Zhou Zhi thought of a solution for the future and entrusted Xu Gang's cousin to search for Russian jade while also purchasing mammoth ivory.

Beneath the vast tundra of Siberia lie countless ancient mammoth carcasses. Due to the long-term freezing environment, many of these carcasses still retain fresh flesh and skin, not to mention their ivory.

The ivory materials are much larger and stronger than African ivory, and the quality of good mammoth ivory is even higher than that of African ivory. Moreover, it can perfectly circumvent the CITES trade ban, allowing this intangible cultural heritage of China to be preserved.

The exhibition area features a pair of huge, curved mammoth ivory carvings depicting "immortals riding a raft." In the center is a massive ivory dragon boat crafted using carving and assembly techniques. In front of the dragon boat is a "devil's craft ball," currently the largest in diameter and with the most layers in China. The pieces come from Beijing, Fujian, and Guangdong, representing the pinnacle of ivory carving craftsmanship.

Of course, no one can afford these three items, but like the jade exhibition area, the mid-to-low-end products made from mammoth ivory are currently not expensive, making them very suitable travel souvenirs. Bringing them back as gifts is a sure way to impress others.

In addition to these exhibition areas, there is also a rest area on the first floor that connects to the outside, offering simple drinks and seating for visitors to relax.

The building's museum function officially begins on the second floor.

The second floor is an exhibition area for modern and contemporary art.

Several large paintings are right in front of you.

The first painting is a "gift" that Zhouzhi bought when he bought the hotel—Pan Tianshou's "First Clear Day".

This painting was a task assigned to Pan Tianshou by the province when the Overseas Chinese Hotel was completed. At that time, Pan Tianshou was at the peak of his creative career. After receiving the task, Pan Tianshou used the scenery of the Shiliang Waterfall that he had sketched in Tiantai Mountain as his subject matter. He used ancient pines, rocks and exotic flowers to create a huge work that is 141 centimeters high and 365 centimeters wide.

Not all painters are accomplished at creating large-scale paintings, and even some of the most renowned first-tier painters are not all known for their large-scale works.

What shocked Yan Zhenwei even more was that next to "First Clear Day" were Li Keran's "Ten Thousand Waters and Thousand Mountains", Wu Guanzhong's "Lion Grove Garden", Xu Beihong's "Peaceful Farming in the Land", Jiang Zhaohe's "Returning Home", "Second Brother Leaving Sichuan", and finally Zhang Daqian's "Clouds and Mountains of Wuxia"!
"This...this..." Yan Zhenwei was so shocked he couldn't speak. (End of Chapter)