CNR News:

Just now, you mentioned several museums. We have noticed that "museum fever" has been heating up over the past two years, leading to difficulties in making reservations and securing tickets at some popular institutions. How is the NCHA responding to this phenomenon? Will the NCHA adopt relevant measures to address these issues? Thank you.

Guan Qiang:

We will have Mr. Liu answer this question.

Liu Yang:

Indeed, as you mentioned, museums have been gaining increasing popularity in recent years, and it can be difficult to obtain tickets for popular museums. I would like to share some data with you. As of the end of August this year, 6,833 officially registered museums have received 940 million visitors. The number of visitors during the two summer months reached 299 million. Six provinces — Jiangsu, Shandong, Beijing, Zhejiang, Shaanxi and Guangdong — have each welcomed over 15 million visitors. Popular museums such as the Palace Museum and the National Museum of China have become top tourist destinations. Last month, the 10th Chinese Museums and Relevant Products and Technologies Expo was held in Hohhot, in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, attracting over 350,000 visitors in just four days. Additionally, the exhibition of the Civilization of Ancient Egypt at the Shanghai Museum, as you may have heard, has attracted 580,000 visitors in the past two months since its official launch on July 19, averaging about 10,000 visitors per day.

These findings demonstrate the public's growing demand for high-quality cultural products, which places increasingly higher expectations on our work. As museum professionals, we will continue to strengthen and improve our operations in the following aspects.

First, we must expand our capacity to deliver high-quality cultural experiences. Behind the current "museum fever" lies an imbalance in museum popularity across regions. Addressing this disparity is our primary challenge, and we'll continue coordinating development across various museum categories. In the first half of this year, we released a new batch of key museums jointly built by central and local governments. We'll guide these institutions to play a leading role, encouraging them to cooperate with smaller museums by means of touring exhibitions, collection loans, and collaborative exhibitions, bringing premium cultural resources directly to grassroots communities. At the same time, we'll also implement a promotion plan for small- and medium-sized museums, guiding more than 4,000 such institutions to develop their unique characteristics and distinctive features, thereby offering the public more diverse options.

Second, we'll continue to optimize opening services. On July 1, at the beginning of the summer vacation, we issued guidelines for museum operations that rejected a one-size-fits-all approach, instead directing localities to scientifically implement reservation systems based on their specific circumstances. According to statistics, of China's 6,833 museums, most have eliminated reservation requirements, except for the most popular venues. Where reservations remain necessary due to operational needs or local conditions, museums have improved their systems by maintaining staffed ticket windows and phone booking options. Nearly 1,200 of the nation's 1,662 first-, second- and third-class museums have extended their opening hours. To address the issue of ticket scalping and unofficial guided tours, we've recently conducted special consultations with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Public Security, and Beijing and other places have also launched special campaigns to crack down against scalping operations. Next, we'll strengthen regulations and guidance on reservations and guided tours to protect the public's fundamental right to access cultural resources.

Third, we're expanding service delivery methods to create "museums around people." We'll use new technologies and new means to develop cloud exhibitions, cloud educational programs and livestreaming capabilities to create a new curatorial model that seamlessly integrates digital and physical exhibitions. At the same time, we'll extend museum resources into communities and schools through mobile museum initiatives. Our goal is to build a museum "life circle" that aligns with both socioeconomic development and meets the public's needs for a better life. This approach bridges the "last mile" in cultural access, ensuring everyone enjoys more high-quality and convenient cultural services. Thank you!