The Paper learned from the State Administration of Cultural Heritage that museums nationwide welcomed 304 million visitors during the summer of 2025, an increase of 7.96 million visitors compared to the 296 million visitors in the summer of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 2.6%, and a record high. Jiangsu province saw 26.35 million visitors, Shandong province 24.83 million, Beijing 19.93 million, Zhejiang province 19.91 million, and Guangdong province 18.80 million.
Museums were well prepared for the summer rush, actively managing visitor flow and ensuring a positive visitor experience by optimizing admission mechanisms and introducing extended hours. During the summer, the Zhijiang branch of the Zhejiang Provincial Museum launched its first "admission by appointment + weekend nighttime opening" service, welcoming a total of 870,000 visitors to its Gushan and Zhijiang branches. The Nanjing Museum extended its hours, benefiting 1.603 million visitors. The Anhui Museum launched "Unfettered Tours," extending its hours to 6:00 PM from Friday to Sunday, offering no reservations or ticket collection required, benefiting over 700,000 summer visitors. The Liaoning Provincial Museum continued its no-appointment admission policy and extended its closing hours, welcoming a total of 972,000 visitors.
Visitors visit the Anhui Museum's "Return of National Treasures: Special Exhibition of Old Summer Palace Animal Heads and Overseas Returned Cultural Relics"
Visitors visiting the exhibition hall of Liaoning Provincial Museum
In the scorching summer heat, emergency cooling is the first line of defense. Cultural and museum venues have added heatstroke prevention equipment and provided training to provide visitors with a comfortable and cool environment while also being prepared for emergency response. The Hubei Provincial Museum preemptively performed "micro-surgery" on its air conditioning, organizing daily inspections of the air conditioning and facilities in the exhibition halls. It also added drinking water stations and cultural and creative ice cream bars. It also issued the "Regulations on Visitor Admission Services in Extreme Weather," incorporating innovative "early entry" and "nearest drop-off" systems to address extreme heat and heavy rain, providing visitors with peace of mind. The Hunan Museum also set up a "cooling barrier" early on, including large awnings and water mist sprayers. Cooling herbal tea is continuously provided, and frontline staff carry anti-heat medications on hand to dispel the heat and protect visitors' cultural journeys.
Hunan Museum provides free herbal tea to visitors
Wonderful exhibitions are frequently held and colorful activities are on full display. The audience has expectations and the museum is worth seeing. On the basis of six permanent exhibitions such as "The Great China Choosing the Central Plains to Build its Capital" and "Danxi Jijin - Bronze Art of the Chu State in the Central Plains", Henan Museum has launched new special exhibitions such as "Forever Strong Mountains and Rivers - Revolutionary Cultural Relics Exhibition of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Anti-Japanese Base Area", "Gazing at Time - Polish Amber Cultural Art Exhibition", "A Fan Opens in the Breeze of Thousands of Miles: Chinese Export Fans from the 18th to 20th Centuries", and "Six Hundred Years of the State of Cai - Special Exhibition on the History and Culture of the State of Cai". It has also held the "Meet Henan·National Treasures Wonderful Night" summer extended opening event, carried out social education activities such as Henan Museum National Treasures Adventure, Little Archaeologists, and Museum Dragon Hunting, as well as the popular immersive cultural relics interpretation drama "National Treasures Wonderful Tour" and Mayan Market, which integrate shopping, playing and visiting the museum, so that the audience can return with a full load; Gansu Provincial Museum has deeply explored its collection resources and, in addition to the existing five basic exhibitions On this basis, the museum launched exhibitions such as "'Family Traditions of the Chinese Communists' Archive Exhibition", "Steel and Glory - European Knights' Armor and Culture Exhibition", and "Unbelievable Realm - Super-sensory Immersive Experience of Grotto Art". It also carefully planned the "Gansu Craftsmanship · Intangible Cultural Heritage Courtesy" market event, "Play with Clay", "Colorful Scratch Painting", and "Brief Introduction to China" youth social education activities to enrich the audience's summer museum experience. Relying on the multi-dimensional exhibition and education space of the "Sichuan Museum Academy", the Sichuan Museum launched the Summer Museum Study Camp with the characteristics of "theming, immersion, and integration of disciplines". With "Exploring the Origins of Civilization · Inheriting Craftsmanship" as the main theme, it deeply integrated the museum's collection resources with the requirements of the new curriculum standards, and opened four core courses: historical origins, aesthetic enlightenment, scientific and technological exploration, and the inheritance of Chinese studies and intangible cultural heritage, to create an immersive learning experience that is "audible, visual, and hands-on". In addition, the Sichuan Museum's mobile caravan drove into the Kuanzhai Alley, a cultural landmark in Chengdu, setting off a nighttime cultural and museum boom.
Immersive scripted tour of the Qin and Han Dynasty exhibition halls of the Sichuan Museum, "Tianfu Hanyun"
From day to night, countless wonderful moments were captured during the summer, and quietly busy figures flashed among the crowds. This summer, museums protected visitors' enthusiasm with attentive service and welcomed the surge in popularity with a full attitude. The museum's growing popularity during the summer is not only a cultural feast shared by all, but also a continuous source of spiritual nourishment and strengthened cultural confidence.
(This article is based on data from the National Cultural Heritage Administration's article, "304 Million Museum Visitors Set a New Record This Summer.")
