From a special exhibition showcasing a glitter cluster of precious collections from nationwide museums and art institutions to creative programs like museum tours at night and cross-over shows featuring cultural relics, China has been hosting a variety of activities to mark International Museum Day, celebrated every year on May 18.

This year marks the 45th anniversary of IMD, an annual celebration of the global museum community coordinated by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) – a worldwide network of over 44,000 museum professionals at 20,000 museums in more than 138 countries.

With the COVID-19 crisis continuing for almost a year, this year's IMD features events and activities running around the globe under the theme of "The Future of Museums: Recover and Reimagine."

China launched a special exhibition on Tuesday named "Treasures of All Ages" at the Capital Museum of China in Beijing – the main venue for China's IMD celebrations, showcasing the nation's achievements in cultural heritage preservation.

The exhibition, running from May 18 to August 17, displays more than 50 cultural relics and artifacts that were rarely unveiled to the public before from 23 museums and cultural heritage institutions nationwide, such as the Palace Museum, Dunhuang Academy, and China National Silk Museum.

It will introduce some of the most cutting-edge technologies and methods that are utilized in repairing and safeguarding cultural relics, presenting the latest practices and progress in cultural heritage protection and restoration, according to the organizer National Cultural Heritage Administration (NCHA).

A new program called "Night at the Museum" is taking place on Tuesday night at the Chinese main venue for IMD celebrations, offering a rich cultural feast that blends the cultural relics and artifacts with other art forms, such as Peking Opera, theater and dance.

During the three-month exhibition, the NCHA will also invite renowned cultural relic protection experts to hold 11 lectures, allowing the public to explore the stories behind the precious exhibits and to better safeguard the cultural legacy.

Li Qun, deputy minister of Culture and Tourism, noted at the launch ceremony that China was home to a total of 5,788 museums that have been registered with authorities by the end of 2020, with 1,224 museums at the state level, adding that an average of one new museum was opened every two days across China between 2016 and 2020.

Despite the impacts and challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, museums across the country have been in a healthy recovery process, presenting more than 29,000 exhibitions and receiving nearly 540 million visits last year, said Li, who is also head of the NCHA.

At the Tuesday morning launch ceremony, the NCHA signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Beijing Municipal Government to jointly make the capital a "City of Museums."

The national cultural authority also announced that they will join hands with China Mobile to launch a project of "Museums in 5G New Life," bringing the museums and their collections to people's daily life and bridging the public and cultural institutions.

In addition to the main venue events, museums, memorial halls and art institutes around China have been rolling out a slew of on-site and online exhibitions, as well as a series of creative activities, shows and seminars, to enrich the public's interactions and reimagine their museum experience.

A new museum featuring bronze chariots and horses of the Qin Dynasty (221 BC to 206 BC), China's first empire, opened in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province on the International Museum Day. 

Located in the Qinshihuang Mausoleum Ruins Park, the museum unveiled one of the most anticipated collections to the public: two sets of Qin Dynasty bronze chariots and horses unearthed in 1980.

In east China's Shanghai, a total of 111 popular museums and art galleries, including the Shanghai China Navigation Museum, the Shanghai Contemporary Art Museum, and the Shanghai Automobile Museum, opened for free to the public on Tuesday. 

Among them, the Shanghai Xiangcheng Photography Art Center and the Shanghai Oil Tank Art Center (part of the exhibition halls) were open for free to citizens for the first time on the same day.

Housing more than 130,000 pieces of cultural relics through the ages, including the Jiahu bone flutes – the oldest wind instrument in the world, the Henan Museum in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan Province, staged ancient Chinese music concerts on Tuesday, presented by the Huaxia Ancient Music Ensemble under the museum.

The prestigious museum also had a live-streamed charity event to sell its popular archaeological blind boxes online. 

The unique blind boxes are trending on major online shopping platforms as they integrate the blind box concept with cultural relics, allowing buyers to experience the joys of digging cultural relics as an archaeologist.

(Cover designed by Li Jingjie, based on the ICOM's official IMD 2021 poster.)