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Golden year coming for museums

By Qin Zhongwei
Updated: 2010-02-08 00:00

Beijing is set to breathe new life into some of its museums this year with expansion and reconstruction projects on the way.

And, while existing museums are brought up to date, the capital will also build new ones, including a space dedicated to the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Liu Chaoying, director of the museum department within the Beijing Administration of Cultural Heritage (BACH), told China Daily the Olympic Museum will be built inside the Bird’s Nest Stadium. Preparation for that project will be completed by the end of the year.

“There are more museums that are going to open this year, including the Beijing Auto Museum in Fengtai district,” she said.

Meanwhile, eight museums — including the China National Museum, Beijing Museum of Natural History, Memorial Hall of Lao She, Memorial Hall of Xu Beihong, Beijing Aviation Museum and the Beijing Arts and Crafts Museum — will be expanded or reconstructed to accommodate more people.

An anonymous staff member working at the Memorial Hall of Xu Beihong, a public museum that exhibits the works of the late Chinese painter, said the site sees around 60,000 visitors a year and the space is not big enough.

Beijing is also seeing a significant expansion in private museums.

Since the capital approved the creation of private museums in 1996, the number has kept growing. In 2008, there were 24.

In the past month, two new private museums — the Imperial Granary Museum and one run by CCTV host Cui Yongyuan that displays movie props — have opened.

“There are a number of private museums that are not registered with our administration, so the accurate number could be more than the released one,” Liu said.

By the end of 2009, the total number of museums in Beijing registered with BACH reached 151. Among them, 36 were free to visit and, last year, attracted 5.6 million visitors.

The city hopes the museum scene can improve still further.

Yang Nan, a Beijing expert who specializes in history and museums, said the growing number of people wanting to visit museums means the city should be doing more.

He told the media earlier that museums do not seem to be prepared to meet demand and he called for more free museums to be opened in areas where they are needed, saying the city “needs to develop a museum culture”.

Liu said professional staff and updated facilities were the most pressing challenges.

A research report prepared by Liu’s department suggested visitors could also learn to protect exhibits and behave properly when they visit museums.

Wang Yanfeng, a frequent museum visitor and mother of a three-year-old daughter, said Beijing still lags behind European countries, where visiting museums is a regular part of life.

“At the same time, the museums should offer more interactive alternatives rather than just exhibitions, which will attract more visitors to come into them,” she said.