In line with China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), which calls for developing a new socialist culture with strong intellectual guidance and international influence, the Palace Museum is embracing digital innovation to preserve and share its rich cultural heritage. By seamlessly blending ancient traditions with advanced digital technologies, the museum is building an intelligent, open and shared "digital Palace Museum" system.
Located in the heart of Beijing, the Palace Museum is home to China's largest and best-preserved complex of ancient palace architecture. It manages more than 1.95 million cultural relics and artifacts of great historical and cultural value. To ensure the permanent preservation and lasting transmission of these treasures, the museum began building a data center in 2000 to store and manage information, images, videos, and other operational data related to its vast collection.
Over the years, the museum has made remarkable strides in digitizing its cultural resources. Since formally launching the "digital Palace Museum" initiative, it has undertaken an unprecedented effort to capture and archive digital images and 3D data of its cultural relics. Digital image information of tens of thousands of objects is captured and archived every year. To date, the museum has collected digital data on 1.07 million artifacts, accounting for more than 53 percent of its total collection.
At the same time, the museum actively promotes greater transparency and public access to its digitization work. The digital gallery on the museum's website has made images of 150,000 artifacts available to the public, transforming its database from an internal management tool into a public resource. It has also launched and continuously updated online platforms such as "Record of Famous Paintings in the Palace Museum","Digital Cabinet of Curiosities", and "Panoramic Palace Museum". These platforms use digital technology to present the museum's architecture, collections, and exhibitions in a more comprehensive way, enabling the public to explore the museum anytime and anywhere.
As early as 2000, the Palace Museum recognized the unique strengths and vast potential of digitally enabled immersive experiences in cultural communication. It has since explored the use of virtual reality, augmented reality, naked-eye 3D and other technologies to provide the public with diversified digital cultural services.
Drawing on its rich accumulation of 3D data, the museum has developed VR programs and experiential projects focused on iconic spaces within the Forbidden City, including the Hall of Mental Cultivation, the Imperial Garden and Juanqinzhai (the studio of exhaustion after diligent service). Visitors can experience the historical and cultural charm of the Forbidden City in immersive theaters and enter these spaces through VR headsets for interactive exploration. This innovative approach allows the public to connect with history in a deeply personal and engaging manner.
The museum has also collaborated with leading digital technology institutions in China and abroad to develop high-quality digital exhibitions, including "Discover the Hall of Mental Cultivation", "Patterns Convey the Way", and "FLASH! The Palace Museum". These exhibitions have toured both domestically and overseas, bringing audiences vivid, interactive, and engaging cultural experiences.
It has also created digital exhibition halls and explored new models of interaction. Opened in 2015, the Duanmen Digital Gallery was China's first fully digital exhibition space integrating ancient architecture, traditional culture and modern technology. In 2025, the "digital exhibition hall of Dagaoxuan temple" became a multifunctional space combining exhibition, research and education, further enriching the visitor experience and fostering a deeper understanding of Chinese culture.
In addition to maintaining its website, the museum operates accounts on major Chinese social media platforms including Sina Weibo, WeChat, Douyin, and Kuaishou, regularly releasing high-quality content. Its combined following across platforms has surpassed 40 million. In cooperation with Douyin, it launched the "Cloud Museum Tour on Douyin" initiative, inviting Palace Museum experts to explain the history and culture of the museum in accessible and engaging ways. The project has produced hundreds of high-quality short educational videos, helping audiences deepen their understanding of and interest in traditional culture. The museum has also released AIGC short videos such as "The Palace Museum Treasures' Reunion Night" and AI interactive podcasts such as "Let the Treasures Speak", using new technologies to present traditional culture in innovative ways.
With the growing popularity of mobile devices, the museum has developed more than 10 mobile apps under the "produced by the Palace Museum" brand. Total downloads are in millions. The "Daily Palace Museum" app, presented in calendar format, introduces one artifact each day, bringing the beauty of traditional culture into everyday life. The "Palace Museum exhibitions" app brings together all major exhibitions launched by the museum since 2015 and provides services for both online and in-person audiences, further strengthening the museum's public service role.
For more than two decades, the Palace Museum has remained at the forefront of efforts to empower the preservation and revitalization of cultural heritage through technology. At the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period, it plans to continue strengthening digital innovation and use technology to better protect, uncover and carry forward the fine traditional Chinese culture embodied in its artifacts. The museum will also establish itself as an important base for patriotic education and a key window through which the world can better understand Chinese civilization and the Chinese nation, thus contributing to the development of socialist culture in the new era and the building of a leading cultural nation.
The author is a member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and Party secretary and the deputy director of the Palace Museum.
The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.
