Friday, October 10, 2008

The Virtual Gugong

The Forbidden City: Beyond Space and Time is a new Web site created under a partnership between The Palace Museum and IBM. The site provides visitors with access to an immersive 3-dimensional virtual world where you can celebrate and explore aspects of Chinese culture and history.

In late 2006 I visited the Forbidden City with my friend Yang Pei. We spent the day hiking deeper and deeper into the core, touring scores of niche museums that archived various time frames along the path of Chinese history. It was both physically and intellectually overwhelming.

The virtual Gugong site encompasses the latest Web 2.0 dynamics, encouraging visitors to join in the site community in order to share in discussion and gain access to a greater number of features. I am downloading the 204MB application that will permit me to enter the virtual world. A half hour later I am installing the application. And, click to run... little wheel turns and turns, nothing happens. Stay tuned... there must be an answer.

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