At a conference on reinforcing the importance of cultural heritage in Yinchuan, Nin Xia Hui Autonomous Region, Li Xiaojie, Minister of State Administration of Cultural Heritage said that in order to increase the utility rate of cultural heritage, borrowed exhibitions, joint exhibitions and tour exhibitions should be encouraged, and a shared network of collections from different museums should be established.

He said there were large numbers of mobile collections but their distribution was uneven. Statistics from State Administration of Cultural Heritage shows the exhibition rate from ninemuseums jointly-owned by central and local governments was no more than 5% and only 1.2% at the least, the average being less than 2.8%. In some newly established museums at the city and county level, no displays could be held.

“From now on, we will focus our work on the construction and free-opening of museums and draw upon more ideas and solutions to tackle the key issue,” Li said.

There were 4,165 museums in China in 2013, an increase of 299 compared with last year. Visitors to the museums reached 0.6 billion, a 13.1% increase.

Li commented that to solve the problem of having a low exhibition rate, joint and tour exhibitions between museums at the national and provincial level should be promoted. He stressed that it was crucial to establish an evaluation system on the quantity and quality of collections at the museums.

Moreover, comprehensive measures will be taken to handle the problem whereby some archaeological institutions refuse to hand over unearthed cultural heritage items. Such actions will result in a lack of museum resources and is harmful to the preservation and management of the country’s cultural heritage.

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