This cultural landmark in Shanghai reopens in the rain: Is the queue long? Is it crowded? How is the service? Reporters experience it on the spot

This morning, the East Building of the Shanghai Museum reopened to the public after more than a month of intensive construction and exhibition. Ten new exhibition halls and interactive experience spaces were added, and the open area accounted for about 80% of the exhibition space. The daily reception capacity increased to 20,000 people per day.

The first day of the reopening coincided with the arrival of the plum rains. How did the first batch of visitors experience it? There are many innovative exhibits in the newly added exhibition halls. How do the visitors feel about it?

At around 10 a.m., the rain had not stopped. Mr. Peng, a citizen who had made an appointment to enter the first batch of venues in the morning, was delayed by the weather. He hurried to the individual entrance on the east side of the basement level of the Shanghai Museum East Pavilion at 10 a.m. The reporter saw that the four queues were full of people waiting to enter, and many more came from all directions. The entrance area is located in a semi-open space, so the queued audience is not disturbed by the rain.

"Today is the first day of reopening, and it's raining, so I think the queue will be quite long." Standing at the end of the line, Mr. Peng saw many visitors, elderly and children, coming with umbrellas. However, as the museum opened at 10 a.m., the queue quickly started moving. Mr. Peng put on his umbrella at the entrance, went through security check, scanned his ID card, and entered the East Building before 10:30 a.m. "It was smoother than expected."

The reporter also saw that there were many more verification gates than when they were opened at the beginning of the year, and there were staff members at each gate to assist, which improved the efficiency of passing through. At around 13:00 noon, the reporter came to the Shanghai Museum East Pavilion again. Although there were still visitors who had made reservations for later time periods, there was almost no queue at the entrance.

Although individual visitors had to change the entrance, most of the audience entered smoothly thanks to detailed signs and proactive service from the staff.

The entrance to the reopened Shanghai Museum East Hall has been adjusted: at the beginning of the year, the entrance was from both ends of the north gate. After the restart, individual tourists entered from the east gate on the underground floor, and the north gate entrance became a green channel for group tourists. Mr. Lin, a citizen who had been here twice before, did not notice the reminder of the entrance change on the reservation applet, but as soon as he got off the subway and walked to the East Hall, he saw a striking "visit entrance" guide sign, guiding individual tourists and group tourists to different directions. "I was looking at the guide sign when I heard someone call me 'Individual tourists, please go this way.'" Mr. Lin looked up and found that along the low wall facing the guide sign, the guide sign appeared again, and there was a uniformed staff holding an umbrella and calling him. Following the staff's instructions, he went around to one side and saw the elevator heading to the underground floor. The security guard next to him also signaled to him, "Please take the elevator down at the entrance." The reporter also saw in the Shanghai Museum East Hall that each self-guided tour guide was equipped with staff to introduce information and provide help to visitors in need.

The Bronze Museum is very popular, but visitors can still get close to appreciate the details of the artifacts.

At around 13:00 noon, the reporter visited several exhibition halls in the Shanghai Museum's East Hall and found that despite the large flow of visitors, many visitors had a good experience of viewing the exhibition. The Ancient Chinese Bronzes Hall on the first floor has a large flow of visitors, but visitors can still get close to the display cabinets and carefully observe the cultural relics. Many children wear AR glasses or voice guide devices and stop in front of the cultural relics to admire them. Ms. Chen, a citizen who came with her children, had previously visited the "Starry China" special exhibition at the Shanghai Museum's East Hall. "There were so many people that I felt embarrassed to squeeze in front of the cultural relics for a long time." The Shanghai Museum's East Hall has reopened this time, "and it is very popular, but the exhibition experience is good."

Mr. Hu, a cultural and museum enthusiast, went straight to the Archaeology Hall on the 4th floor as soon as he entered the museum. He likes to visit the exhibition "in reverse": "Generally speaking, the exhibition halls on higher floors will have fewer visitors at the beginning." He found that the flow of visitors to each exhibition hall was relatively evenly distributed, and the experience was greatly improved: "Now that 10 exhibition halls have been added, the audience has more choices. Even if the flow of visitors is larger than before, the visitors can visit in a dispersed manner."

"This white porcelain pillow has a human-shaped door opening underneath. It's not just for show, but also to allow air to circulate at the bottom during firing to prevent it from bursting." In the Ceramics Museum, a reporter saw a visitor holding his phone to his ear, explaining to his friend the "secrets" of this white glaze carved palace figure pillow. The visitor was using the "Shanghai Museum Guide" app to listen to a free explanation. "I hadn't found this app two days before the museum opened, but it's quite convenient to use today."

In each exhibition hall, many innovative details satisfied the visitors. In the Ceramics Museum, the reporter found that many exhibition stands extended from the bottom of the display cabinets, so that visitors could put their hands on them to appreciate the cultural relics from a closer distance. The same design was found in the Coin Museum, Jade Museum and other exhibition halls.

In front of a Yuan Dynasty egg white glaze printed cloud dragon pattern high-foot cup, a visitor lay on the extended platform, holding up his mobile phone to take a picture of the front of the cultural relic, and then raised his hands to try to take a picture of the pattern inside the cultural relic, but when he looked up, he found that the pattern had been rubbed out in the background of the cultural relic. The visitor told that the details of extending the booth and rubbing the cultural relic pattern on the wall enhance the visitor's experience.

Visitors lined up in front of an underglaze blue-and-white porcelain vase from the Kangxi period at the exit of the Ceramics Museum: There are many interactive projects such as museums at home and abroad that allow visitors to touch porcelain specimens and cultural relics raw materials, but directly touching cultural relics can be said to be a pioneering domestic exhibition of the same kind. The reporter saw at the scene that not only the queuing area was marked out with isolation railings, but also signs were set up to remind visitors to avoid crowding, take off jewelry on their hands, and keep mobile phones and other easily shaken belongings when touching cultural relics. The reporter saw at the scene that the bottom of this porcelain vase was slightly open outward and was fixed in a transparent material, and gently touching it would not cause the cultural relics to shift. Despite this, the female security guard standing next to this porcelain vase always paid attention to the cultural relics and reminded the audience "not to shake" and "put away the mobile phone". She told reporters that the cultural relic was "accompanied" by security personnel throughout the visit, and when more and more visitors lined up, staff immediately came to "reinforce".

"I can actually touch the cultural relics directly!" Mr. Xu, a citizen who brought his children to visit, encouraged his children to touch the cultural relics and took pictures of the moment. Many viewers leaned over to observe the cultural relics first, and then slowly reached out to touch them. The Hetian jade raw stones exhibited naked at the entrance of the Jade Museum also attracted many viewers to "try their hands". The reporter saw three viewers dispute the material of the raw stone after touching it, and then found that the material and other information were explained on the sign next to it. "It feels good this way. Not only can we see it, but we can also touch it, and it also explains in detail what we are touching."

"I didn't expect to be able to make an appointment." Mr. Peng showed the reporter a screenshot of his phone. He successfully made an appointment at 12:50 p.m. yesterday. "I saw the news that the appointment program would be online at 12:00 p.m., but it kept showing 'There are currently a lot of visitors, please try again later.'" It was not until around 12:20 p.m. that he finally swiped the appointment page, but it did not show today's appointment time. "Later, I swiped it several times and clicked the verification code seven or eight times, and finally succeeded." But then the mini program showed that it was inaccessible again. It was not until the afternoon that he entered the mini program again and immediately took a screenshot of the page showing his successful appointment and saved it. "In case the previous appointment was canceled due to a program problem, at least the screenshot is proof."

Yesterday evening, the Shanghai Museum issued an "apology notice", stating that the reservation app had malfunctioned due to an instantaneous overload of traffic, causing visit reservation and ticket purchase procedures to fail. After emergency processing, reservations for permanent exhibitions in the East Hall and People's Square Hall have returned to normal.

"Museums have been too popular in recent years!" Although he had a good experience queuing and visiting the exhibition on the first day of reopening, Mr. Peng also said, "Today is a weekday and only permanent exhibition halls are open. With the arrival of the summer vacation peak and the opening of special exhibitions, the museum still needs to be fully prepared for the large flow of visitors."

At around 13:30 noon, a noise suddenly came from the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasty section of the Ceramics Museum, startling many visitors and staff. It turned out that this exhibition area was designed with a screen-style display cabinet that was higher than the ground, with text descriptions in the middle and cultural relics on both sides. The gaps were large enough for an adult visitor to pass through, and the noise was made by a visitor stepping on an empty step. The reporter saw at the scene that from time to time, people stood here to observe the side of the cultural relics, or walked through directly. Some visitors said that such innovative displays are visually beautiful, "but safety issues still need attention."

The large booth is one step above the ground, so please pay attention to safety when passing through.

In front of the popular Ancient Civilization Exploration Palace, some visitors found out that they needed to make a separate reservation when they wanted to enter. A visitor scanned the QR code at the door and found that they had to fill in their personal information to register. "Haven't I already registered to visit the museum?" After she completed the registration, she found that the reservations for that day were full, and the reservations for the weekend were also full. In addition to the exhibition hall requiring a separate reservation, some activities also require another reservation. "Reservations are like nesting dolls." The visitor took a picture of the QR code at the door and said, "I'll try again when I have a chance." "I understand that the number of places for interactive exhibition halls and activities is limited, but can it be more convenient?"

"New venues and visitors need to get used to each other." Mr. Lin, who was completely unprepared but was guided by staff all the way into the museum, said that visitors should do their homework in advance for their trips, and the venues should also spend some time teaching visitors how to "use" the venues well. "The audience and the cultural and museum venues make progress together and achieve each other."