Museums in China take measures to improve visitor experience

Recently, museums in many places across the country have been enjoying a peak season. Driven by this, the museums have taken various efforts to try to make full use of their resources and satisfy Chinese citizens' ever-growing spiritual and cultural needs.

Days ago, a Gandhara art exhibition, which is the largest Gandhara cultural exhibition ever held in China, kicked off at the Palace Museum in Beijing. The artifacts displayed at the exhibition have attracted many visitors.

Photo shows a Gandhara art exhibition at Beijing's Palace Museum. (Photo courtesy of the Palace Museum)

The exhibition entitled "Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London" at Shanghai Museum in Shanghai enjoys so much popularity that the museum has decided to extend the opening hours of the exhibition during the day and keep the exhibition open at night from March 28 to May 7.

On April 1, an exhibition on cultural relics unearthed in north China's Shanxi Province kicked off at the Shanxi Museum in Taiyuan, capital city of Shanxi.

In addition to showcasing a variety of cultural relics, the museum has taken some measures to improve visitor experience, including using low reflective glass to showcase the exhibits, employing modern multimedia equipment to better display the exhibits, and applying virtual reality technology to bring historical scenes to life.

Photo shows a cultural relic on display at Shanxi Museum. (Photo courtesy of Shanxi Museum)

Among those visiting museums are people who want to learn something about the exhibits, as well as people who come just to snap photos of the exhibits and share their experiences on social media.

Industry insiders pointed out that they are delighted to see that museums have become a popular option for many people.

"We should appreciate people's enthusiasm for museums and interest in cultural relics," said Zhang Jingwei, an associate research fellow at Shanghai Museum.

Photo shows the exhibition hall of Liangzhu Museum in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province. (Photo courtesy of Liangzhu Museum)

Museums built upon archeological sites provide new scenes to better tell stories of cultural relics. Liangzhu Museum in Hangzhou city, east China's Zhejiang Province is an example.

Liangzhu Museum has worked to organize its exhibits in new ways, according to Huang Li, deputy curator of the museum. For instance, the layout of the museum offers a big exhibition space and allows visitors to follow their own course throughout the space.

The museum craze reflects the general public's deep love for traditional culture, and is attributable to the museums' growing ability to organize exhibitions, as well as their rising service awareness.

Zhang said to maintain the good momentum, museums need to know about the audience's interests through self-reflection and interaction with them.