Study tours draw students to museums(2)

Diversified tours

The popular Jinsha Site Museum in Chengdu, Northwestern China's Sichuan province, has been conducting study tours since 2014. The spacious museum includes several exhibition halls, a relics hall where visitors can see the archaeological site itself, and a garden area that recreates the natural environment of ancient times.

In the past two years, the museum has organized about 140 study tours. These tours offer hands-on experiences such as working as an archaeologist, repairing relics, making golden wares and learning about ancient architecture.

According to He Lili, director of the museum's public education department, the interest in these programs has grown significantly. She has worked at the museum for a decade and recalls that 10 years ago, the Junior Interpreter study program received only a few dozen applications each year. Last year, the museum received more than 1,000 applications.

The museum is dedicated to promoting the culture of the more than 3000-year-old Shu civilization. Many of the tours are specifically designed to focus on this ancient civilization.

For instance, the museum offered a four-day tour that allowed children to visit various locations to learn about the Shu civilization from different perspectives, including archaeological sites and other museums. During the tour, participants even had the unique opportunity to spend a night at the museum, sleeping in tents set up in the exhibition halls.

Last year, to make the tours more appealing, the museum partnered with a Shu embroidery factory and a lacquerware factory. Participants were invited to experience these traditional crafts firsthand after learning about related relics in the exhibition halls.

"Museums have become an important destination for family education. On Children's Day, long lines form at the entrance from early morning, with many parents bringing their children, hoping to take part in our study tour. This did not happen previously," said He.

Open to the public since 2019, the Confucius Museum in Qufu, Shandong province, capitalized on the trend of study tours in 2023 by launching several attractive educational products.

The museum is dedicated to the life, teachings and legacy of Confucius, the renowned Chinese philosopher and educator. It showcases a vast collection of artifacts, manuscripts and historical relics related to Confucius and Confucianism. Its tours are designed to enable visitors to explore details of Confucius' life, as well as his philosophical ideas.

One popular program centers on its large collection of traditional clothes from the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911), allowing participants to make replicas of antique robes. Another standout program focuses on food cooked in the Confucius family, where participants can prepare the same cakes as those made by the ancient people.

Cheng Liqi, director of the Confucius Museum's public education department, mentioned that during the National Day holiday in October, they conducted three study tours per day, catering to 60 families. Despite their best efforts, they could not meet the significant demand from families visiting the museum from other cities. In November, students from several middle schools in Beijing and Shanghai visited the museum to participate in the tours.

Cheng's team also received invitations from schools in Fujian, Guangdong, and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region to conduct in-classroom study tours. For these, the museum provides multimedia materials and creative products related to hands-on activities.

"They want to learn something during their visit while also having fun and relaxing. This is what people expect from study tours. And museums have made great efforts to meet these demands in the past two years," Cheng said.

She added that she could see the rapid increase in the number of students visiting museums, a trend supported by policies issued by government bodies at all levels.