With the rise of technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality and 3D imaging, a growing number of museums in China are using digitalization to make their collections more attractive to a new generation of tech-savvy visitors.

Many young people today are fascinated with and are proudly promoting traditional culture, according to Le Rongwei, director of Department of Information at the Zhejiang Provincial Museum.

"Unsurprisingly, more of them are choosing to visit museums," he said.

"The digitalization, or informatization effort, is one of the most important ways for museums to connect to and retain their visitors."

In 2017, the museum tried its hand at digitalization to develop an online curation system. Using laser scanning technology, Le's team created four virtual exhibition halls the same size as the museum's physical halls, in which curators can drag digitalized cultural relics－images or 3D models－on their computers and set up cloud exhibitions.

For Treasures of Zhejiang: Tales Told by 100 Selected Cultural Relics, an exhibition staged in 2018, the museum used artificial reality to introduce an interactive experience called "Taking photos with cultural relics". Visitors were able to take virtual photos of ancient treasures by using the cameras on their phones.