Social Events: Silk Musium (photographer: Joe DeMaria) IMSCCS|06 organized to visit Chinese National Silk Musium in Hanhzhou. China's National Silk Museum is the first state-level museum dedicated to silk culture and the biggest silk museum in the world. Chinese former chairman Jiang Zemin made an epigraphy 'Opening up a New Silk Road, Promoting Chinese Silk Culture' for celebrating the opening of the museum in spring 1992. Located at the foot of Yuhang (Jade Emperor) Hill south of West Lake, the museum occupies a total construction area of approximately 8,000 squares meters (about two acres), which includes eight different exhibition halls: the Prelude Hall, the Relics Hall, the Folk Custom Hall, the Silkworm Hall, the Silk Manufacturing Hall, the Weaving Hall, the Dyeing Hall, and the Achievement Hall. The museum exhibits silk production artifacts from the Neolithic Age to the Han, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties. In the Modern Achievement Hall, a series of refined silk products made in modern society are on display, demonstrating the great achievements that have been made in the silk industry with the support of Chinese government since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.China is the birthplace of the silk industry with approximately 5,000 years history of planting mulberry trees, doing sericulture and filature,and twining silk. Thus, visitors here have the opportunity to see the silk production tools and silk production lines from many eras and enjoy the rich silk culture, local customs, folk tales about silkworms, and the silkworm cocoon harvesting ceremony. In addition, visitors with enough curiosity can try to weave silk themselves, an effective way for them to know how silk is manufactured. Each year, countless silk professionals and aficionados from all over the world meet here to appreciate those masterpieces made by ancient laboring Chinese and celebrate the silk festival at the same time. China's National Silk Museum all the while pays much attention to friendly cultural exchanges about silk with any other countries. With past years' efforts, the museum has been gradually developing to a high - standard research, collection, and authentication of the ancient Chinese silk cloth. The museum is a hot tourist destination, which attracts those who are really interested in the Chinese silk.