China has set a goal of having one museum for every 250,000 people in the country by 2020. It aims to build up more top-class facilities like the Shanghai Museum, which is now celebrating its 60th anniversary.

The Shanghai Museum just wrapped up four special exhibitions to mark its 60th anniversary. They included selected bronze mirrors, early Chinese paintings, porcelain from the Yuan Dynasty, and Russian jewellery.

The museum attracted nearly two million people last year, its best year since 2010 when the World Expo was held in Shanghai. The museum now has more than one million pieces in its collection, and more than 120,000 of them are on display in its ten galleries.

Visitor Verlyn Husman said, “It’s kind of fun to go through and look it, you know, different clothing, different metals, casting. It’s been just fabulous, perfect day. History repeats itself, so you go back and look at your history. If you don’t know history, you fail.”

Visitor Chen Beili said, “I see real things that match the history I have learned after going around in the museum. I am so happy to see those collections kept so well here.”

A report released by China’s Museum Association last year said museums across the country still need to do a better job building up their collections and need to offer better public service. It also included ratings for 82 of the country’s 100 top tier museums. The Shanghai Museum was ranked first, ahead of the Palace Museum in Beijing and the Nanjing Museum, two cities with far more history than Shanghai.

The Shanghai Museum is the example to follow, as China sets a sweeping new goal for more museums in the country.