When visitors to the gigantic Palace Museum complex in Beijing feel a need to sit down for a cup of tea or find a bathroom without a long line, they soon will be able to turn to their smartphones for the information they need.

 

当游客在巨大的北京故宫游览，想坐下来喝杯茶或者尽快找到一座卫生间的时候，他们很快就可以打开手机寻找相应的信息。

 

This modern-day solution at the venerable compound comes thanks to an agreement signed on Friday by the museum and Huawei Co, the telecommunication¹ giant, to build a "smart network" using 5G technology, the fifth generation of mobile network communications.

 

Under the agreement, 5G Wi-Fi signals will cover the 720,000-square-meter compound, China's imperial palace from 1420 to 1911 and also known as the Forbidden City, and the branch museum of the institution under construction in northwestern Beijing.

 

But visitor comfort is not the only benefit of a 5G smart network.

 

Huawei will also provide the museum with cutting-edge technologies for the internet of things-devices or objects linked in a network-cloud computing² and artificial intelligence to facilitate such functions as management, security and preservation³ of cultural relics⁴.

 

"It's essential to always stay close to the latest technology to better serve the public," said Shan Jixiang, director of the Palace Museum.

 

Shan said there is still much room for improvement in the handling of a huge number of cultural relics, such as when the priceless painting Along the River During the Qingming Festival is exhibited again next year.

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