2025 International Museum Day · Main Venue in China event in China was held on May 18 at the Grand Canal Museum of Beijing.
At the opening ceremony, China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration released the latest data on the development of China's museum sector in 2024. By the end of the 2024, China had 7,046 registered museums—an increase of 213 compared to the previous year—reaching the milestone of one museum per 200,000 people, with a free admission rate of 91.46%. Over the same period, museums across the country hosted over 40,000 exhibitions and 510,000 educational activities, attracting over 1.49 billion visits.
The event also unveiled the evaluation results of China’s first grade national museums, the Top 10 National Museum Exhibitions for 2024, and the list of China’s Most Innovative Museums for 2025. Two key reports were released on the Development of China's Museum Industry (2024) and the Development of the Grand Canal National Cultural Park. Several major initiatives were launched, including the Bridge of Civilizations Program: Overseas Exhibitions of Outstanding Cultural Relics, the 2025 Beijing Museum Season, and the signing ceremony for the establishment of the Asian Cultural Heritage Alliance headquarters in Beijing. The event also featured the opening of This is the Shang, part of the Exhibition Series on the Origins of Chinese Civilization. It was also announced that the Main Venue event for International Museum Day 2026 in China will be hosted in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, while the International Exposition of Museums and Related Products and Technologies will take place in Haikou, Hainan Province.
Notably, the second and third volumes of the Zidanku Chu Silk Manuscript in Changsha—dating from the Shang dynasty (16th to 11th century BCE)—safely arrived in Beijing in the early hours of the same day, after being lost overseas for 79 years. This represents the latest achievement in China's ongoing efforts to repatriate lost cultural artifacts.
Since 2009, the National Cultural Heritage Administration and provincial governments have co-hosted the Main Venue event for International Museum Day in China, which has now been held successfully for 17 consecutive years. In addition to the opening ceremony, this year’s event also features a thematic forum, youth forum, and curators' forum. The host city, Beijing, organized a vibrant array of exhibitions, academic forums, public activities and cultural heritage promotions. Under the guidance of the National Cultural Heritage Administration, thousands of diverse and content-rich events are being held across the country under the theme of International Museum Day, bridging the distance between museums and the public.
Source: National Cultural Heritage Administration of China