On September 13, the press conference was held for Exceptional Dazu — Special Exhibition of Dazu Rock Carvings at the National Museum of China, from September 17 to November 17. The 82 pieces (sets) of cultural relic exhibits include the stone relics from the Song Dynasty to Ming and Qing Dynasties, the 3D-printed replicas, the paper line drawings, the repair tools, and the test hands for the statue of thousand-hand Guanyin, as well as the key highlights of the collections such as the censer, and the statues of Guanyin and Shakyamuni Buddha.

According to the conference, the exhibition will open at the exhibition hall on the fourth floor of the National Museum, covering an area of 1,000 square meters. The model of pictures + physical objects + optical, electrical, and acoustic methods + science and technology + intelligence + data economy will be adopted to show Dazu Rock Carvings in an all-around, multi-angle, multi-level, and three-dimensional way. The exhibition will help make the rock carvings on the cliff come alive, the national treasures at the National Museum move, and China in the heritage shine brightly.

Dazu Rock Carvings, one of the eight grottoes globally, is comparable to Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, Yungang Grottoes, and Longmen Grottoes. It was built in the early Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty. So far, there are as many as 75 grottoes and more than 50,000 statues under cultural relic protection. The carvings have unprecedentedly integrated Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism and represent the highest level of grotto art in the world in the 9th-13th centuries.

According to Li Fangyin, head of the Dazu Rock Carvings Research Institute, Dazu District has organized exhibitions in museums, held lectures in schools, enriched books in libraries, and made micro-videos over the recent years, in a bid to promote Dazu Rock Carvings culture and Dazu Rock Carvings. 

On September 17, the opening ceremony of Exceptional Dazu — Special Exhibition of Dazu Rock Carvings and the theme release event of Dazu Rock Carvings will be held. During the exhibition, the MV Dazu Rock Carvings, the special full-dome film Dazu Rock Carvings, and an 8K full-dome movie will premiere at the National Museum of China.

In addition, Shan Jixiang, former director of the Palace Museum, will help promote the culture and tourism in Dazu District. He will serve as the chief adviser of the culture and tourism in Dazu District and lead a team to shoot the Shape of Culture (Season 2) in the district. At the same time, the digital Silk Road cultural tracing action will maintain the historical features, view cultural relics through big data, intelligence, and information technologies, and then connect the world's heritage pearls. 

To this end, Dazu will utilize the model of the whole industrial chain of “chips, LCD panels, intelligent terminals, core components, and Internet of Things (IoT),” all factors of "cloud platforms, networks, big data, computation, and integration," and all scenarios of "residence, industries, travel, amusement, and shopping" to call efforts to sign the digital Silk Road cultural tracing action at the exhibition in collaboration with the culture and tourism authorities of India, Iran, Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and other countries.