Beijing's Capital Museum is expanding its exchanges with other countries as part of the city's renewed focus on building a national cultural center.[Photo by Shou Yiren/For China Daily]

"He is more knowledgeable than I thought about museum work," Guo said. "He is really easy to approach and gave us some suggestions."

The president was scheduled to visit the museum for half an hour, but stayed nearly 50 minutes, and stopped to remind photographers not to accidentally touch the cultural relics. "He suggested our exhibitions should let the history talk and present knowledge to visitors," Guo said.

Guo said Xi's visit inspired the museum staff to look beyond exhibitions as a mere display of cultural relics. For example, Harmonious Life: The Fate of Ba in Eyes of Yan Princess, a 2014 exhibition, selected 190 sets of bronzeware to illustrate the rituals of North China 3,000 years ago from a princess' point of view.

The exhibition was listed by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage as one of the country's Top 10 museum exhibitions that year.

"The number of exhibits is not so many, but we pay much more attention than before to designing easily understood information for visitors, rather than a simple juxtaposition of cultural relics," Guo said.

Guo is proud to have a young team - the average age of the museum staff members is about 35 - and he said they have been encouraged to create more scientific methods in cultural relic protection.

Hu Yongqi contributed to the story.