Museums offer a new way to celebrate during Spring Festival

World
Europe

01:39

The traditional way to celebrate Spring Festival has been to spend it with family. But for some this year, visiting museums became another option.

In Beijing, the Palace Museum welcomed on average over 80-thousand daily visitors during the 7-day Spring Festival holiday. Tickets had sold out nearly two weeks in advance.

Visiting the museum became more popular in Beijing this year because of an ongoing exhibition, which aims to provide an immersive experience for visitors with the entire Forbidden City adorned with newly restored ancient royal lanterns, spring couplets and Chinese New Year paintings.

Two Wanshou lanterns (or longevity lanterns) are restored to recreate the royal celebration for the Chinese New Year in Qing Dynasty in the Palace Museum in Beijing, January 29, 2019. /VCG Photo

This includes a rare collection of prints of the Chinese character "Fu," meaning blessings and good luck.

Shan Jixiang, director of the Palace Museum said, "By showcasing relics related to the Spring Festival, we hope to create a good festive atmosphere and let visitors learn more about traditional Chinese culture."

In east China, people were lining up in front of the Shanghai Museum well before the doors were even open.

A pig-shaped bronze vessel that dates back to 3,000 years ago was on display for the first time at the museum.

Crowds take photos for the terracotta warriors at Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, February 9, 2019. /VCG Photo

In central China, the Henan Museum admitted 8,000 visitors on the second day of the Chinese New Year. This was an increase of 60 percent compared to last year.

This year, visitors could learn traditional Chinese paper cutting at the museum.

China's 5,136 museums saw nearly one billion visits in 2019, and over 20-thousand exhibitions took place at these museums.