Writer Liu Cixin visits the Shanghai show.[Photo provided to China Daily]

"Someone said that any book could be turned into a movie, except the Three-Body trilogy, the first masterpiece in Chinese science fictions to attain international acclaim. It also seemed hard to reveal the vast outlook in the books through an exhibition, so I really looked forward to it," she adds.

The exhibition covers an area of nearly 2,000 square meters, spanning three floors of Shanghai Tower, the world's second-tallest and China's tallest building, situated in the Lujiazui Finance Area of the metropolis.

"The 132-story Shanghai Tower also shows magic of engineering. Its size is equivalent to the waterfront buildings along the Bund (in Shanghai), and it's a vertical city that has the capacity to accommodate 35,000 people," says Gu Jianping, general manager of Shanghai Tower Construction and Development.

The exhibition will run through February 2021. Other Chinese cities, such as Beijing, Shenzhen, Taiyuan, Xi'an, Wuhan, Shenyang and Ningbo, as well as Tokyo and Osaka in Japan, have approached the organizers to invite the exhibition to tour their cities, Shi says.

"The popularity of the novels shows people's common interest in exploring the infinities of space and time through our lives. I encourage people to look at our lives, the past and the future from a higher perspective," Liu says. "As a science-fiction novelist, I keep reminding myself to not get trapped by pressures of trivial, daily life and to maintain curiosity about things from afar."