Shanghai History Museum announced the founding of its alliance with eight other museums in the Yangtze River Delta region on June 28.

The nine member institutions are the museums of Wuxi, Changzhou, Suzhou and Nantong in Jiangsu province, Ningbo, Huzhou, Jiaxing and Zhoushan in Zhejiang province, and the Shanghai History Museum.

One of the first projects of the alliance will be an exhibition on China's patriotic entrepreneurs in the early 1900s, which will be jointly held by the nine museums. The exhibition will take place next year, first at Shanghai History Museum, followed by tours in the other member institutions.

Zhou Qunhua, director of Shanghai History Museum, said that Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces have much in common with Shanghai in terms of traditional culture.

"Each institution has its specialty and advantages and we plan to establish a team of mentors, who will share their experience and expertise with staff members of all the museums in the alliance," said Zhang Liang, head of the Ningbo Museum.

The new alliance will share resources on the research of the distinctive culture characteristics of the Yangtze River Delta region, information about their collection and technologies involved in the protection of cultural relics.