Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, will become the host city for China's main activities during International Museum Day, which falls on May 18. It was announced by the National Cultural Heritage Administration in Beijing on Monday.

Nanjing Museum, one of the biggest provincial-level museums in China, will become this year's home venue and is about to launch a highlighted exhibition on that day showcasing about 200 cultural relics ranging from the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 BC) to Han Dynasty (206 BC to AD 220) on loan from collections across the country. Other special exhibitions will be staged around the city starting that day.

Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, this year's International Museum Day events were once planned to be entirely held "on cloud", but China's containment of the virus enabled the original plan to be largely maintained.

Nevertheless, the number of participants at activities will be controlled, and essential measures will be taken to ensure visitors' safety.

On May 18, a donation ceremony will be held in Nanjing Museum commemorating its collection of artifacts related to the COVID-19 outbreak. A digital platform providing easy access for virtual museum exhibitions around the country will also go online that day.

International Museum Day was initiated by International Council of Museums, or ICOM, in 1977. Since 2009, China has annually chosen a host city for a national celebration of museums in modern life.

For this year's event, a symposium is to be held in Nanjing on the future development of world's museums in the context of cultural diversity. It will also be "attended" by scholars from ICOM, the United Kingdom, South Korea and the United States through webcam.

This is in keeping with this year's theme for the celebration — "Museums for Equality: Diversity and Inclusion".