From royal collections and ancient riches to everyday forms of entertainment in the modern age, the number of Chinese museums has skyrocketed by 14 times since the start of reform and opening-up, welcoming more and more visitors from home and abroad.

In 1905, the first Chinese-established public museum was set up in Nantong, east China’s Jiangsu province. Founded by Zhang Jian, a Chinese business from the late Qing Dynasty, the museum featured exhibitions on natural history, art, and meteorology.

Once the first bud flowered, more followed, especially as the nation became increasingly open to science and technology. In October 1925, the world’s largest museum, the Palace Museum, was set up in the Forbidden City, a place where emperors ruled and took residence along with their countless precious items.

Now, the Palace Museum has set a world record as hosting the largest number of visitors of any museum in the world. In 2018, it hosted over 17.5 million visitors, breaking its own record once again.

“In the past 40 years, the number of museums in China has increased by 14 times to more than 5,000 museums. Among them, museums that are free have reached 87.97% of the total, and 855 museums are rated as first and third-level national museums,” Liu Yuzhu, head of the National Cultural Heritage Administration, introduced in November 2018 at the National Museum Expo in Fuzhou, southeast China’s Fujian province.

In 2017, museums across China held more than 20,000 exhibitions and hosted some 200,000 special education activities, attracting 970 million visitors, according to Liu.