Datong Folk Museum in North China's Shanxi province, has enlarged its exhibition area nine times than its original space.

Since its opening to the public on June 15 this year, the museum has been limited by its exhibiting and reception area, and the plan to expand its collections has been put on hold.

The densely piled objects in the Datong Folk Museum collections in one of the storehouse, Sept 15 [Photo/dtnews.cn]

The two courtyards that are just incorporated into the museum, Sept 15 [Photo/dtnews.cn]

Due to limited space, a large number of collections were piled up in the dark, which proved to be an obstacle for experts to carry out a systematic classification of the artifacts.

With the government's help and coordination, the museum took two courtyards from its neighboring units and has used them for exhibiting halls.

As the museum's area has increased from 100 square meters to over 1,000 square meters, the staff have expanded the range of searchies for folk collections and designed the decoration of its exhibiting halls. It is promoting a variety of themed-zone exhibitions.

According to the staff, the newly decorated museum will be open free to the public by the end of May next year.

The enlarged museum will emphasize joint efforts of both the government and local people to collect items with cultural value. It is also preparing to open a variety of themed exhibitions, including Datong's local cuisine, folk dwellings, articles of daily use, relics of the Great Wall, folk arts and crafts, and Datong heroic figures. In addition, the museum devotes itself to apply combined measures to its exhibitions, using audio and video, text captions and performances, to display both the tangible and intangible heritage in the city.