Visitors admire an exhibit of relics at Beijing's Capital Museum.[Photo by Shou Yiren/For China Daily]

Beijing's Capital Museum is expanding its exchanges with other countries as part of the city's renewed focus on building a national cultural center.

In the two years since President Xi Jinping visited the museum and decreed that preservation of China's cultural industry should be one of Beijing's key roles, the museum has been working to set an example for the city's arts institutions.

Wang Anshun, Beijing's mayor, said the city will be focusing this year on cultivating cultural industries and better protecting cultural relics, consistent with Xi's mandates.

Guo Xiaoling, the museum's director, attributes some new ideas to the president's visit to the museum in 2014.

"Beijing aims to build a world-level cultural hub and museums should take responsibilities realizing the goal," Guo said.

In striving to reach this goal, the museum has gradually become a window for international cooperation. It has partnered with the Edo-Tokyo Museum in Japan and the Seoul History Museum in South Korea to hold conferences and exchange exhibitions. Last year, the Capital Museum staged Seoul, a City of Streams: The Changing Fortunes of Cheonggyecheon.