Group visits to the museums are still banned in both cities, so are guided tours by museum staff. However, visitors can enjoy a digital tour by scanning QR codes to access exhibit information.
No Beijing-based museum has, as yet, announced plans to open, including the Palace Museum, which attracted 19 million visits in 2019, the most among Chinese museums.
Nevertheless, what concerns museum operators is the safety of not only humans, but also cultural relics.
For example, in Shanxi province, specific rules are set for custodians of warehouses to avoid touching the artifacts. A group of experts has been organized in the province to evaluate the possible impact of disinfectants on paper-based cultural relics like paintings and calligraphy and may seek to remove them from exhibition halls.
