Summer space exhibits inspire China's next generation of dreamers

Wandering through a temporary exhibition on lunar exploration held at the China Science and Technology Museum, an 11-year-old boy surnamed Huang from North China's Hebei province was still thinking about the virtual journey he had just taken.

"The VR exhibit showcased a future moon base. It felt so real," Huang says. "I hope I can go there one day."

Jointly presented by the CSTM and the China National Space Administration, the exhibition features real spacecraft components, including a backup of the specially designed national flag once displayed on the moon's surface in 2020 by the Chang'e-5 flight, China's first lunar sample-return mission, a piece of the high-performance alloy dubbed "Chang'e steel", and a commercial rocket engine.

Visitors can also enjoy an immersive virtual reality experience that places them in the role of a researcher traveling to a lunar base in 2049.

"We heard about the exhibition and wanted to bring our son," says Huang's father, who is struck by how today's children can access space science resources that were unimaginable when he was young.

"When I was a child, I had heard of the Long March rockets. Later, Yang Liwei went into space, and I felt China's space program was advancing rapidly," he says. "Back then, we could only learn vaguely from the news that China had satellites and rockets capable of reaching space."

Yang became China's first astronaut to enter space in October 2003.

The family's visit reflects a broader transformation in summer science education. Achievements that previous generations could only follow from newspaper reports and television broadcasts are now becoming immersive, hands-on experiences for children.

That trend extends beyond Beijing. In Hefei, the capital of East China's Anhui province, the Anhui Museum is hosting an exhibition that places modern space exploration within the much longer tradition of ancient Chinese culture's observation and the questioning of "heaven".

Running through Oct 20, the exhibition brings together nearly 300 cultural relics and exhibits from 48 museums and research institutions. Ancient astronomical instruments are displayed alongside models of the Yutu lunar rover and China's space station, as well as lunar soil brought back by the Chang'e-6 mission in 2024 — humanity's first samples ever collected from the moon's far side.

Animations, demonstrations of ancient instruments and interactive installations guide visitors through subjects ranging from early celestial observation and timekeeping to today's deep-space exploration.

While the Hefei exhibition links contemporary missions with centuries of skywatching, the Nanning Science and Technology Museum in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region focuses on hands-on participation. Its "My Space Dream" summer camp introduces children to the development of China's space program while offering simulated astronaut training.

Such programs are part of a broader effort to expand science education beyond the classroom. At Beijing's CSTM alone, more than 220 exhibit demonstrations and educational activities are scheduled on an average day, covering subjects from spaceflight and chemistry to artificial intelligence.

China has placed greater emphasis on science popularization and education. Its Science and Technology Popularization Law, revised in 2024, places science popularization on an equal footing with scientific and technological innovation and encourages its integration with culture, tourism and other sectors.

According to the National Development and Reform Commission, China produces more than 5 million graduates in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics each year. Its science and technology workforce has surpassed 110 million people, according to a 2022 report from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Those figures describe the far end of the country's talent pipeline. Science museums operate much earlier in that process, turning major national projects and sometimes abstract scientific ideas into experiences that children can see, question and remember.

For Huang's parents, spaceflight was once a distant national story learned through the news. This summer, their son stepped out of a virtual lunar base talking not only about how far China has come, but also about how far he hopes to go.

XINHUA