The Palace Museum is a giant work of art, said Evan Kail, an American pawnshop owner who received a porcelain tea jar as a national gift from China, after his visit to the museum.

Kail admitted that he didn’t know much about porcelain before receiving the gift, so he made a special trip to the ceramics gallery, or the Hall of Martial Valor (Wuying Dian), home to a wide array of preserved porcelain works.

“As a recipient of Guoli Ci (China’s national gift porcelain), I have a newfound appreciation for porcelain,” he said.

“The color, the painting, the decoration, the architecture, and even the garden…What they have is like a mini museum,” Kail said.

He was particularly attracted by a lifelike ceramic crab, calling it “the coolest thing I got here.”

Kail’s visit to the Palace Museum follows his donation of a photo album that documents the atrocities committed by Japanese invaders during World War II in China.

In August 2022, he received the album from a client in Shanghai before moving on to Nanjing, where the brutal history of the Nanjing Massacre occurred.On Nov. 17, 2022, he decided to donate the album to the Chinese Consulate General in Chicago.

Then the Consulate General gave him a surprising national gift, an exquisite porcelain tea jar as a gift along with a letter.

Kail then learned from netizens in China that it is a precious gift from China to foreign friends, which represents China's profound friendship and high recognition. Therefore, he visited the Palace Museum, hoping to learn more about the gift and Chinese porcelain.

He arrived at the Beijing Capital International Airport on Nov. 16.

Kail said he would stay in China for about a month and visit a few cities, including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Nanjing.