Hang Kan (second from left), head of the Yungang Research Institute, discusses methods of restoring wall paintings at the institute in Datong, Shanxi province, last month. [ZHAN YAN/XINHUA]

"Museums have become one of the most important tourist destinations for Chinese people," said Pan, explaining that people's demand for visiting museums surged last year, especially during the summer vacation when families flocked to museums.

"More than 200 of the 6,565 museums in China faced challenges of how to accommodate a great number of people in a short time. As a result, people might have found it difficult to book tickets," said Pan.

Moreover, people have become more demanding about the quality of exhibitions, and their themes have often been discussed online.

A highlight of the exhibitions last year was An Epic of Chinese Jade for 10,000 Years at the Nanjing Museum in Nanjing, Jiangsu province.

"The exhibition was well-acclaimed and popular. Jade has a long history in China and is distributed in places such as the Liangzhu city ruins near Hangzhou in East China's Zhejiang province, and sites of Hongshan culture in Northeast China. This display showed them together and covered the development of Chinese jade from 10,000 years ago. It means researchers at the museum did a lot of research on the subject," said Pan.

Visitors are increasingly pursuing an immersive experience when visiting museums, according to the expert.

"The China Grand Canal Museum in Yangzhou, Jiangsu, has been extremely popular. It's not known for its exhibits, but for its interactive activities. You can also find many visitors, and not limited to young people, wearing traditional Chinese costumes at the museum. The trend has been followed by people at other museums, becoming a ceremonial and popular way of visiting museums now," said Pan.

However, he pointed out the uneven popularity of museums in China, saying except for the more than 200 popular museums, others, even some at the national or provincial level, did not see a significant growth in visits last year.