In / WeChat Mongolian Museum
Scat-id, Hong Kong - when the U.S. and Israel bombarded Iran, destroyed some valuable cultural sites, dozens of Persian artifacts remained safe and intact, 5,000 kilometers away in North China, under the supervision of Dong Bibing.
The museum curator manages an exhibition of over 150 Iranian antiquities, from flowered pieces to a bright and complicated carpet.
Since the war broke out at the end of February, the show at Hohhot, the Mongol province in, became more popular, as with increasing interest among Chinese society against the country and neighboring culture that rivaled their own culture in terms of depth and injustice.
Initially scheduled to end in March, this exhibition extended until April and has just ended on Monday. The exhibition will soon be displayed in another city, which has not been determined - the fifth stop on a national tour.
Dong said he felt very heartbroken when he read about the Iranian historic building, including the Golestan Palace in Tehran, a UNESCO World Hermit Site,
damaged by war .
"But now, right before my very eyes, there is a truly remarkable collection of Iranian artifacts."
Many visitors share their experiences admire these artifacts, and encourage others to visit as soon as possible.
Dong told CNN: "War has made me feel this urge - this protective instinct - to protect and preserve them as best you can."
Although they are both ruled by revolutionary governments established in our memories, Iran and China together has roots that originated thousands of years ago. Each of them traced his modern lineage back to ancient civilisation - something the people and their government were very proud of.
The ancient city of Persepolis summed progress in architecture, city planning, construction, and art under the Akhemenid Empire (550-330 B.C.) which precedes modern Iran, according to UNESCO, and "including among archaeological sites which are unparalleled and which are the unique witnesses of ancient civilization."
According to the ministry of cultural heritage, more than 130 Iranian historic buildings have been destroyed or destroyed during a six-week bombing campaign by the U.S. and Iran.
Neither the U.S. nor Israel stated that they accidentally targeted cultural or historical sites. President Donald Trump threatened to destroy "
The entire civilization "Iran if the country doesn't comply with its demands.
In / WeChat Mongolian Museum
Book sales are soaring.
While the Chinese government has played a careful diplomatic role in the conflict between its greatest global rival and his closest friend in the Middle East, his people have shown a wave of curiosity and admiration towards Iran.
The leading bookseller in Beijing confirms the increasing interest.
"The book of Iran was unsold, but his request increased recently," said a worker at the Page One bookstore in Beijing, Who asked for his name to be kept secret.
In various university colleges in China, students also studied books about Iran to find out why the U.S. wants to fight a war with a country for which they seem far and mysterious.
"Since last month, more and more students have come to borrow books about Iran, even comic books like Persepolis have been borrowed more and more every day," said a librarian at a prestigious university in Beijing, named Zhang, to CNN.
Written by the French-French artist Marjane Satrapian, a graphic novel "Persepolis" that came out in the early 20000s describing A young girl's journey into manhood In Iran during the transition from the Shah regime to the Islamic Republic in 1979. This novel was then adapted to a movie with the same title in 2007.
The book's been back popular in China since the war began, with bookseller reporting only a few copies left in their stock.
Watching a documentary about ancient Iran recently became Karen Yan's favorite hobby, a 30-year-old financial worker in Beijing, after a hard day's work staring at market data that told the story of the global impact of the war.
The beauty of the enduring architecture of Iran -- orchesting, with geometric precision -- has calmed her heart, she says. Claiming not much about Iran, Yan said his curiosity has gotten stronger since the war broke out.
"After looking at the news about ancient Iran sites that turned into debris, I wanted to learn what they were, and I thought they were really beautiful," Yan said to CNN.
One other Iranian admirer recently was Echo Zhao, who worked in the consulting industry in Suzhou, a town west of Shanghai, who recently bought two books on the country, to "better understand or empathize with the current situation or ordinary people."
By recording the same foundation of civilization between both countries, and the same history of oppression and invasion, "the 34-year-old man said that the interest in China" may be caused by today's international climate and the reality of the US tension. "
"
Chinese museum visitors see Iranian antiques at the Inner Mongolian Museum. In / WeChat Mongolian Museum
And as the war -- which is now temporarily suspended by a fragile ceasefire - continues to mess with the global supply chain and put pressure on the fuel reserves, especially in East Asia, many people in China are also trying to understand how it will affect them.
Gao Shan, an academic publisher in Beijing, told CNN that he had recently discovered the books on Iran from several lost angles in his office, to better understand what was going on.
The 45-year-old man noted that Iran has ties to China because "ancient Iran has always been an important liaison in the ancient Chinese trade path, which is the Silk Road."
"But now I want to read to understand how the U.S. started a war with this country can affect our energy supply," it adds up.
The main curator of the Hohhot exhibit, Yin Quanbin - a Chinese citizen living in Iran - says that he hopes that his coworkers can "see that the Iranians are humans like us, right?"
"They have their own likes and sorrows, their own perspective on the world," he said.
