An art exhibition co-hosted by culture and tourism bureaus of Jining and Weifang opens at Jining Museum on May 18. [Photo/Jining culture and tourism bureau]

May 18 marks the International Museum Day. Museums in Jining, East China's Shandong province organized an array of online and offline activities to showcase the "Power of Museums", which is the theme of this year's museum day.

An exhibition of more than 60 calligraphy works, paintings and seal carvings by cultural celebrities from Weifang and Jining opened at Jining Museum on International Museum Day to promote cultural exchange between the two cities.

The Memorial Hall of Li Bai, the famed Tang Dynasty (618-907) romantic poet, held a live-streaming event using virtual reality technology to display the hall's collections to the public. 

News anchors dressed in traditional Chinese clothing take viewers on a live-streamed tour of Li Bai's Memorial Hall ahead of International Museum Day.  [Photo/Jining culture and tourism bureau]

Jining currently has 54 museums, 18 of which are State-owned and 36 of which are not. The Jining Museum is a national A-class museum, while the Liangshan Folk Culture Museum is a national B-class museum, and another nine including the Zoucheng Museum and the Confucius Museum are national C-class museums. 

The city has beefed up efforts to promote the development of museums and aims to have 100 museums, with each county or county-level city having at least one comprehensive State-owned museum by 2025.