Hartwig Fischer, the German director of the British Museum. [Photo provided to China Daily]

He says it is "wonderful" for the London museum to be able to share such a global collection, ranging from the inner coffin of Egyptian king Shepenmehyt from 600 BC to a solar-power lamp and charger produced in Shenzhen, China, in 2010.

"The British Museum is a museum of the world, and for the world. We are the biggest lender among all big museums. We have profited from globalization and we are a dynamic factor in the process. This is what we want to continue," says Fischer.

Some of the objects from the original exhibition have been changed because a lot of things featured in the original radio series are too fragile to be moved or even put on display in galleries, says Belinda Crerar, the British Museum's curator of the exhibition.

"We want to keep it (the touring exhibition) as close to the original series as possible, but sometimes an object can not be displayed for conservation reasons, and at other times it is because of the huge scale (of objects)," she tells China Daily.

"So, we try to look for objects in the collection, which can maintain the narrative of the original series. In some cases, when that is not possible, we have added new objects and new stories."