This photo taken on Oct. 27, 2023 shows the side view of an ancient bronze horse statue at Gansu Provincial Museum in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province. (Xinhua/Wang Yuguo)
BEIJING, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- 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 in northwest China now opens 2 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, northwest China's 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, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Aug. 7, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhang Bowen)
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.
The current "museum craze" is driven by Chinese people's growing interest in traditional culture, and the curiosity of overseas tourists to explore Chinese culture and civilization.
Dai Bin, director of the China Tourism Academy, said: "Museum tours are a new form of business, and the 'museum craze' has helped traditional Chinese culture become more ingrained in daily life."
"Chinese culture is becoming more and more attractive to tourists worldwide, prompting the development of inbound tourism," he added.
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 percent of all inbound trips and representing a year-on-year surge of 190.1 percent, according to the National Immigration Administration.
China has 59 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. According to a survey conducted by the China Tourism Academy on inbound tourist satisfaction, over 60 percent 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
A visitor views the head from a statue of Nefertiti during a preview of the exhibition "On Top of the Pyramid: The Civilization of Ancient Egypt" at the Shanghai Museum in east China's Shanghai, July 17, 2024. (Xinhua/Lu Zhe)
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 traditional Chinese paintings with the people replaced with cat cartoons. People wearing cat costumes can get ticket discounts for some night tour activities.
Founded in 1863 by a British merchant, Astor Hotel Tianjin in north China's Tianjin Municipality, has received some well-known individuals such as America's 31st president Herbert Hoover and Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang. The century-old hotel was among the earliest in China to utilize the country's first-generation telegraphs, telephones and other digital equipment, and boasts Renaissance and Gothic architecture.
Today, tourists can visit the Tianjin Lishunde Museum inside Astor and stay in the hotel. The museum has over 3,000 exhibition items, including photos, documents, and furniture, showcasing not only the culture and history of the hotel but also that of Tianjin.
"What impressed me is the tableware and furniture, which show the cultural collision of the West and East," said Diego Acosta from Mexico.
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