19th century map of Beijing shown to Chinese delegates

Members of the Communist Party of China’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection visited KFU with Procurator of Tatarstan Ildus Nafikov.

They arrived to partake in the Forum of the Asian Association of Ombudsmen in Kazan on 11 – 13 September. The guests toured the History Museum and the Lenin Memorial Classroom.

Member of the Standing Committee of CCDI Mu Hongyu, General Director of the Information and Administration Center of Internet Reporting Cao Xuanning and others were glad to get familiarized with KFU’s history.

Of special interest was the legacy of Iakinf Bichurin, first Russian Sinologist, and University’s first ever Department of Chinese Language in Russia (opened in 1837). A lithography of the map of Beijing in 1817, published by Bichurin in 1829, attracted much attention. The delegates noted that Beijing authorities invest significant resources in preserving historical places of interest just as they were in early 19th century.

Among other exhibits of a temporary display at the History Museum were first every Chinese language vocabulary published in Europe by Franscisco Varo in 1703 and a collection of images by an unknown author who joined a Russian Orthodox Church’s mission to Beijing in the 1890s.