An annual special exhibition of the China National Silk Museum – Life along the Silk Road: Little Stories during the Great Era debuts in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province on June 21. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]

An annual special exhibition of the China National Silk Museum – Life along the Silk Road: Little Stories during the Great Era -- debuted in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province on June 21 in celebration of the Silk Road's 5th anniversary of being added to the World heritage List.

The exhibition is co-sponsored by the National Cultural Heritage Administration and Zhejiang provincial government. In addition to the 13 domestic cultural institutions, the Hermitage Museum from St. Petersburg, Russia was invited to participate in the exhibition. It brought 107 cultural relics to be displayed in the Grassland Silk Road section.

Lasting for over two months, the exhibition includes four sections – the prologue, the Grassland Silk Road, the Desert Silk Road and the Marine Silk Road, fully displaying the people's life, regional features and cultural exchanges between China and western countries along the silk road in different periods.

The stories of 13 people associated with the Silk Road in ancient times are an important part of the exhibition, responding to the theme "Little Stories during the Great Era". The Grassland Silk Road showcases the living habits of grassroots officers, generals and nobility through cultural relics. The Marine Silk Road reveals the booming maritime foreign trade by displaying the cultural relics from the Nanhai I shipwreck.

The Silk Road was added to the World Heritage List in June 2014. The application was jointly submitted by China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

The exhibition includes four sections and fully displays the people's lives, regional features and cultural exchanges between China and western countries along the Silk Road in different periods. [Photo/zj.zjol.com.cn]