The International Museum Day, celebrated worldwide on May 18 every year, is an occasion to raise awareness of the importance of museums for the development of society.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has on many occasions noted the significance of museums and cultural relics' protection, stressing that "every museum is a big school."

The footprints of the Chinese leader's visits to museums reflect his vision on civilizations and the approach that China has been seeking along with different civilizations and "inject fresh and strong energy into the common development and progress of human society in a world fraught with multiple challenges and crises."

Here are some of the museums the president has visited.

On July 27, 2022, Xi visited the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution in Beijing and hailed the "historic and great achievement" made in the country's national defense and armed forces construction.

During the visit, he also called for persistent efforts to provide "strategic support" for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

On January 27, 2022, during his visit in Pingyao Ancient City, north China's Shanxi Province, Xi walked into the Rishengchang Piaohao, which is thought to have been China's first bank. 

In the bank museum, President Xi reiterated unshakable cultural confidence, encouraging "further exploring the Jinshang culture and using it to serve today's economic and social development and people's high-quality life."

"We should promote traditional cultural industries with distinctive Chinese features to the rest of the world," Xi said during the visit.

Jinshang – the Shanxi merchants – were the first businessmen in China. Their history could be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC) and the Warring States Period (475-221 BC).

On January 20, 2020, Xi visited the former site of the National Southwest Associated University (NSAU) in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Xi visited the museum commemorating the university, and learned about the history of the institution when its teachers and students dedicated themselves to the country during the war.

He stressed the close link between education and the fate and future of the country, and noted that the goal of China's education system is to nurture a new generation of capable young people who are well prepared to join the socialist cause.

On April 27, 2018, Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited an exhibition of cultural relics at Hubei Museum in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province.

During the visit, Xi said that the culture that rose in and around Hubei Province in ancient times was an important part of the development of the Chinese civilization, and played a decisive role in the process.

Both China and India are countries with time-honored civilizations, Xi said, calling on the two countries to make joint efforts to revitalize Eastern civilizations and promote peaceful coexistence between different civilizations.

On April 13, 2018, Xi visited Hainan Museum and watched an exhibition on Hainan's progress over the past three decades.

Xi said Hainan had transformed itself from a remote and underdeveloped island into China's largest special economic zone (SEZ) and a well-known international tourism island. It proved that the decision of the CPC Central Committee to set up an SEZ was correct, he noted. He called for new breakthroughs in the reform and opening-up.

On February 15, 2015, Xi visited Xi'an Museum when inspecting Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province. 

After viewing the map of the transformation of the capital of Shaanxi, he listened to the introduction of the ancient Silk Road and the history and culture of Chang'an. Xi stressed that we should keep in mind the setbacks and lessons of history, so as to avoid detours and make better progress while inheriting the achievements and glory of our ancestors.

"Every museum is a big school. It is necessary to ensure cultural relics, which embody the traditional culture of the Chinese nation, are well protected and managed while strengthening their research and utilization, so as to allow history and cultural relics to speak for themselves," Xi said. 

Founded about 3,100 years ago, Xi'an served as the capital for 13 dynasties in Chinese history. It is also the place where Zhang Qian, an envoy of the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC-AD 24), began his journey to the Western Regions via Central Asia. This expedition eventually led to the opening of the Silk Road. 

The China-Central Asia Summit is scheduled to open in Xi'an on May 18, 2023.

On November 29, 2012, Xi visited the exhibition, "The Road Toward Rejuvenation" at the National Museum of China in Beijing, pledging to continue working toward realizing the goal of the "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."

Making a keynote speech during his visit, Xi described the exhibition as a retrospective on the Chinese nation and a celebration of its present.

On a planet with over 200 countries and territories, more than 2,500 ethnic groups, and multiple religions, how different civilizations converge tests the political wisdom of leaders, and also reflects the development of different civilizations and countries.

In his keynote speech delivered at the headquarters of UNESCO in Paris in 2014, Xi laid out his vision of civilization that features diversity, equality and inclusiveness.

"We need to encourage different civilizations to respect each other and live together in harmony while promoting their exchanges and mutual learning as a bridge of friendship among peoples, a driving force behind human society, and a strong bond for world peace," he said.

On March 15, 2023, Xi proposed the Global Civilization Initiative at the CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-level Meeting, stressing that "tolerance, coexistence, exchanges and mutual learning among different civilizations play an irreplaceable role in advancing humanity's modernization process and making the garden of world civilizations flourish."

Editor: Nie Yang