Museums of all sizes around China have recently been hosting virtual tours, opening up new possibilities in the field of public cultural services.

The National Museum of China launches an online exhibition marking the 50th anniversary of the successful launch of the DFH-1 satellite.

According to the National Cultural Heritage Administration (NCHA), museums across the country rolled out over 2,000 online exhibitions during the Spring Festival holiday, attracting 5 billion online viewers.

The NCHA announced that related activities to mark this year's International Museum Day, which falls on May 18, will be integrated with offline events for the first time, and these events will be live-streamed via the internet all through the day.

Hosting online exhibitions has become a new trend for museums seeking to offer cultural services, with virtual tours allowing viewers to take a 360-degree look at some exhibits.

Using technologies including virtual reality, the world-famous Palace Museum in Beijing has launched a virtual tour named Panoramic Palace Museum, allowing travelers to roam around all the major places of interest within the historical treasure, including those not open to the public, opening up a vast new field of cultural offerings to visitors.

Chinese museums such as the National Museum of China and the Nanjing Museum have rolled out live-streaming services on popular online platforms like TikTok and Taobao, while the Capital Museum has launched a broadcast program, ensuring that a much wider section of the population has access to public cultural services. Meanwhile, active participation by professionals including curators, scholars and cultural experts has popularized knowledge related to the cultural treasure troves.

Chinese museums will continue to focus on promoting digital transformation, as it is now seen as becoming an irreversible trend for museums around the world.