Changing concepts

In 2002, only about 30 percent of the Forbidden City was open to the public. The number now stands at 65 percent, and is set to rise further, to 76 percent, by the end of 2020, according to Shan.

Since 2014, the museum has offered half-price tickets during the slack winter season, and people in certain occupations, such as teachers, medical professionals and police officers, can obtain free passes for official group visits.

Museums are also gradually changing the concepts that underpin the exhibitions they organize. For example, at the Capital Museum's 2014 exhibition, Harmonious Life: The fate of Ba in the Eyes of a Yan Princess, 190 pieces of bronze ware were displayed to illustrate rituals that were common in North China 3,000 years ago, as seen through the eyes of a member of the contemporary nobility. The presentation was so popular that it was included in a list of the year's top 10 museum exhibitions drawn up by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.

Guo Xiaoling, the museum's director, believes that he and his peers should always consider their visitors' needs. "There were not so many exhibits, but we paid far more attention than before to devising connections visitors would understand easily, rather than simply juxtaposing cultural relics," he said, referring to Harmonious Life.

"Now, we have to be skillful and tell stories through displays to explain why historical events happened in the way they did, and creative exhibition curators have assumed very important roles."

Song Xiangguang, a profess-or of museology at Peking University, said change was inevitable.

"Traditionally, the main function of a museum was to display artifacts to visitors, but the visitors' ideas about developing museums were ignored. Museums are not just custodians of cultural relics. Consequently, we are now more reliant on public participation, and the relationship between the exhibits and humans are now of greater concern," he said.

In March last year, the State Council's first regulation on museums took effect. The guideline urged museums to offer free entry, and to encourage the production and sale of souvenirs, such as reproductions of famous artifacts. Moreover, all museums were required to open to the public within six months of obtaining their licenses to operate. Statistics published by the Ministry of Culture show that by the end of last year, 2,780 museums were offering free entry.

In addition to improving the "hardware" (buildings and infrastructure), Song believes it's equally important for the nation's museums to improve the "software", or services and content.

"It's a good thing that museums are now considered 'windows to cities' (attracting tourists), but when more museums receive visitors free of charge, the composition of the visitors changes. That means there is more demand for visitor-oriented ideas in exhibitions and we have to listen more to their opinions, rather than just relying on policies or experts," he said.