Museums welcome global visitors with peculiarity and hospitality

This summer, museums across China have improved their reservation procedures and launched a series of activities to address domestic and international visitors’ demand for cultural and historical experiences.

Hailed for its collection of bronze ware and Silk Road artifacts, Gansu Provincial Museum now opens two hours longer every day and has increased ticket numbers. Moreover, children can try their hands at making handicrafts or “repairing” replicas of cultural relics.

In addition to using their passports, foreigners wanting to reserve tickets now have the option of using their permanent resident ID cards. In July alone, foreigners paid over 590 visits to the museum, which is equivalent to the total number of overseas visitors received in 2023, according to Ban Rui, deputy head of the museum.

The Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum, home to the world-famous terracotta warriors in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, has welcomed over 2 million visitors since July.

The museum gave the green light to nearly 40 travel agencies to offer international tourists help with booking tickets. Moreover, a service platform for the museum allows overseas tourists to reserve tickets and select services online in 24 languages three months before their trips, covering 39 countries and regions and 29 currencies, according to Zhou Ping, vice head of the museum.

Tourists visit the pit No.1 of the Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, on Aug. 7. Photos by Xinhua

Szűcs Péter, a social media content creator from Hungary, said his visit to Xi’an was a unique experience. “The city is very welcoming. For me as a creative person, journalist and writer, I need stories. Definitely, if you can go deeper into the local culture you will have more stories,” he said.

On overseas social media, “China Travel” has become a popular hashtag, as many travelers share their experiences in China. With the ongoing refinement of China’s 72/144-hour visa-free transit policy, an increasing number of foreign travelers are eager to embark on their own “China Travel” adventure.

The number of visa-free entries to China made by foreigners exceeded 8.54 million from January to June, accounting for 52% of all inbound trips and representing a year-on-year surge of 190.1%, according to the National Immigration Administration.

A visitor views a statue at an exhibition of ancient Egypt civilization at the Shanghai Museum in Shanghai on July 17. 

China has 59 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. According to a survey conducted by the China Tourism Academy on inbound tourist satisfaction, over 60% of respondents cited Chinese culture as the primary reason for their travel to China.

In 2023, a total of 6,833 museums in China held over 40,000 exhibitions and more than 380,000 educational activities, attracting nearly 1.3 billion visits, according to the National Cultural Heritage Administration.

Apart from world-renowned museums, some niche museums and private-owned also have their own features.

Shanghai Guanfu Museum, founded by Chinese antiquities collector Ma Weidu, launched a cat theme exhibition that recreated some well-known Chinese paintings with the people replaced with cat cartoons. People wearing cat costumes can get ticket discounts for night tour activities. (Xinhua)