Museum of press and publication opens in Shanghai

The Museum of China Press and Publication, the first of its kind in the country, officially opened on Thursday.

Located in Shanghai's Yangpu district, the museum features the latest digital technologies and showcases the history, culture and achievements of China's modern news and publishing industry.

Covering an area of 10,000 square meters, the six-floor building consists of six exhibition halls that document the transformation of different aspects of the industry such as printing technologies, art design, children's publishing, digital publishing and audiovisual publishing.

A total of 766 exhibits dating back to the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) are on display. They include books, journals, newspapers, records, scripts, documents and publishing tools.

The museum is also home to over 600,000 artifacts, including the century-old collection from the Zhonghua Book Company Library, which is the largest individual cultural relic related to China's publishing system.

To offer visitors a more immersive and interactive experience, the museum has incorporated glasses-free 3D, 3D mapping, 3D printing and multimedia technologies.

Shanghai is credited as the cradle of China's press and publication industry. Official data shows that from 1912 to 1949, over 300 publishing units gathered in Shanghai, which accounted for more than 80 percent of the national total. And nearly 95 percent of the books listed in China's modern academic masterpieces are published in the city.

The establishment of the museum was firstly proposed in 2001, and preparations started two decades ago. Not only as a display center, the museum is also set to serve as the industrial center of collection, protection, research, public education, cultural exchange and innovation.

Wang Xin in Shanghai contributed to this story.