Poorly funded Chinese museum dampens visitors'enthusiasm

ZHENGZHOU, March 26 (Xinhua) -- With China currently on high alert against a severe flood threat caused by an ice blockage on the Yellow River during the spring thaw, many people have turned to the country's only Yellow River-themed museum to know more about the waterway. The insufficiently-funded museum, however, largely proves a letdown.

"Most visitors end up disappointed because we do not have enough money to update our shabby displays," said Dong Jinyu, a senior staff at the central Henan Province museum.

"People are asking for a better museum where they could get to know the nation's second longest river better," she said.

Near the dusty piles of rock samples in the museum's exhibition hall, a mother was doing her utmost to draw her seven-year-old son's attention from ants on the ground back to a picture on the wall that had faded and turned yellow.

"Most of the exhibits here date back 30 years ago," said Dong, after failing to illuminate the little light bulbs on a demonstration board.

The understaffed institute can only "keep its body and soul together" with money from the local government, said Wang Jianping, the museum's curator.

Many Chinese museums now depend entirely on government subsidies after admissions at most institutes were abolished in the past few years.

"It (the lack of funds) deprives many people of the chance to get to know more about the river, something which is very closely related to the nation and people's lives," he said.

The 1,200-square-meter museum, founded in 1955 in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province, aimed to introduce the public every detail of the river, ranging from its geographic location to flooding control.

Local teen Dong Weihua said he was greatly disappointed after visiting the museum. "I still did not understand why the ice flow was so destructive because the instruments here failed to work," he said.

"I have a burning desire to know more about it now that the river is hitting the headlines these days."

Among the museum's many pictures, a giant black-and-white photo shows Chairman Mao Zedong, the country's late helmsman, visiting the river in 1952. He once famously remarked " No Yellow River, no China."