Illustration: Liu Xiangya/GT

Imagine unrolling your sleeping bag beneath a towering dinosaur skeleton, or drifting off in a silent hall surrounded by ancient artifacts. The only light comes from your flashlight, and the usual daytime crowds have vanished, replaced by a sense of mystery and intimacy. This is not the start of a fantasy novel, but a new trend sweeping through Chinese museums: the overnight stay, or "camping in the museum." As summer temperatures soar and visitor demand reaches fever pitch, these nocturnal adventures are rapidly gaining popularity, sparking debate over whether night stays might be one of the effective solutions to easing the perennial challenge of museum overcrowding during the peak season and enriching the museum visiting experience.

As dusk settled on a summer evening, the dinosaur specimens at the Chengdu Natural History Museum (the Museum of Chengdu University of Technology) cast long shadows in the twilight. Thirty children "dinosaur explorers," each carrying an adventure backpack, began to arrive. This 16-hour overnight event, which cost around 850 yuan ($118) per night for a child, transformed the museum's nighttime silence into a lively prehistoric classroom. Guided by professional mentors, the children recorded their extraordinary discoveries in adventure journals, creating a magical night of dialogue with fossils.

Before sleeping in tents that were pitched around skeletons of dinosaurs in the exhibition hall, these children joined different activities such as a simulated fossil excavation outdoors, fossil-making workshops and a night patrol where they used treasure maps to search the exhibit halls for hidden dinosaur coins. The next morning, an awards ceremony marked the conclusion to their scientific adventure.

Such overnight stays and science-themed fun activities will be held for four sessions during this year's summer vacation. The program is not just about extending opening hours; it is about creating an entirely new science education space through light and shadow effects, scripted missions, and spatial transformations, a representative from the museum told the Global Times on Sunday.

In addition to natural science-themed overnight museum activities, several museums in Luoyang, Central China's Henan Province such as the Erlitou Site Museum of the Xia Capital, Luoyang Museum, the Luoyang Museum of Ancient Tombs, and Sui-Tang Dynasties Grand Canal Cultural Museum - hosted history and culture-themed overnight programs in April 2023, the Henan Daily reported. Each session accommodated 50 participants and included activities like dinner and breakfast, role-playing games, and tent camping. Each night cost around 1,600 yuan for one person.

Upgrading from the standard night tour, staying overnight in a museum shifts the experience to more active immersion. Traditional museum hours inevitably force visitors to compete for limited time and space, often shuffling quickly from exhibit to exhibit. Overnight stays, however, expand the temporal boundaries, providing participants, especially families and young people, more flexibility and more meaningful engagement. By transforming the museum into a 24-hour destination, institutions can better accommodate surging summer crowds, spreading out attendance and offering a richer, more varied use of their space.

What truly sets the overnight museum experience apart is its uniquely immersive appeal. The opportunity to sleep beside fossils or ancient relics turns a routine visit into a personal adventure, fulfilling the modern traveler's desire for "story-driven tourism." Zhang Peng, a cultural researcher and associate professor at Nanjing Normal University, emphasized the importance of immersive experiences in visiting museums, noting that they have stimulated everyone's interest in actively exploring the historical and cultural background behind the cultural relics.

In the darkness, the silent company of artifacts and the thrill of exploring with a flashlight awaken a childlike curiosity. A parent based in Beijing who joined the overnight stay event at the Natural History Museum of China, which cost around 1,200 yuan for her and her daughter, told the Global Times that her daughter was very interested in the activities, including making amber and listening to science stories with other children at the feet of prehistoric giants. This intimacy with history and science is something that daytime visits, no matter how well curated, struggle to offer.

Of course, turning museums into "nocturnal classes" is not without its challenges. Operating a venue overnight introduces a host of logistical and safety issues that traditional daytime management never encounters. 

Security must be heightened; emergency protocols must be robust. The presence of valuable, often fragile artifacts demands vigilant oversight. Dynamic crowd control becomes essential, with careful scheduling to avoid both under- and over-crowding. Rather than an ad hoc offering, the ideal is to make these events annual festivals, creating anticipation while ensuring that the novelty does not dull through overexposure. Appointing dedicated "museum night managers" with specific expertise in night operations could further professionalize and safeguard these experiences.

Regarding safety measures, the Chengdu Natural History Museum has prepared comprehensive emergency plans for its overnight activities. The Natural History Museum of China assigns dedicated staff to ensure the safety of every participating child and requires children under the age of 10 to be accompanied by a parent. Before launching their overnight programs, museums have made every effort to establish thorough safeguards to ensure a secure and enjoyable experience for all participants. 

In a landscape where "demand exceeds supply" is the norm every summer, overnight stays offer a creative and realistic solution to museum congestion. More importantly, they give museums new life after dark - inviting visitors to form deeper, more personal connections with the past. Sleeping with dinosaurs or ancient treasures might just be the dream ticket that lets both people and culture breathe a little easier during the sweltering, crowded months of summer.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. life@globaltimes.com.cn