Zilong Ding Vessel

Visitors may wonder why a plain-looking, rusty, bronze ding vessel is the centrepiece near the entrance to the "2006 Special Exhibition for the Cultural Heritage Day of China" which runs from June 5 to July 5 at the National Museum of China in central Beijing .

However, this ding vessel, named as Zilong, is by no means an ordinary exhibit.

"Indeed, this is a national treasure that deserves the most attention from visitors to the exhibition," said Zhang Xiwu, a cultural heritage expert from the China Information Centre on Cultural Heritage (CICCH), China's top advisory body responsible for cultural heritage evaluation, conservation, acquisition and related construction, training and education programmes.

The showpiece has been recognized as "the earliest known bronze ding vessel of the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046BC) that bears the inscription of the Chinese character of 'long' (dragon ) on its interior surface."