Topic 12 Why people go to museums?

When people travel to new places, they often choose the local museums as a must-see place. Sometimes the museums are even more attractive than the most famous place of interest. This phenomenon can be easily explained if the function of museums is taken into account. As we have known, museums can help us understand the history, the customs and the most representative arts and crafts (ремесла) of a place.

Different place has different history. And the most convenient way to understand the history is to visit the local museum. Last year when I traveled to Xi'an, an ancient city of China, I went to the history museum to explore the course of the city's development. With the background knowledge provided by the museum, I found that it was much easier for me to understand the city. So the museum can take away barriers between the tourists and the city by help the tourists to be familiar with the city's history. To a tourist, the most interesting aspect of a new place is usually its customs, which can be demonstrated by the local museum. The Beijing Custom Museum vividly (ярко, живо, наглядно) shows the real life, the traditions and customs of typical Beijingnese. A visitor can satisfy his curiosity (любопытство) by learning about the origin and characteristics of the quart-yard - the traditional residential building style of Beijing. Thus, with the help of museums, tourists can have a deeper understanding of local people's life and their customs.

Every place has its own representative (типичные, характерные) arts and crafts. Tourists can have the access to a wonderful show of these arts and crafts in the local museum. For example, in the town of Jing-De-Zhen, which is famous for its pottery-making, tourists can be excited by the beautiful pottery products (продукты глиняной посуды) and the complicated making process exhibited in the pottery museum. It will be a pity if a tourist missed the wonderful show of the local arts and crafts in the museum. In a word, museums serve as a bridge between tourists and the place they visit. That is why people are so eager (так стремятся) to visit museums when they travel to new places.

Topic 12 Why people go to museums?

As a tour guide for a Japanese woman in the city of Beijing three years ago, I was amazed that she would be interested in the Chinese Culture and History Museum, which even Chinese pupils does not like to visit. Museum in my eyes used to be a really boring place, which could only display items that are dull and motionless (застывший, неподвижный). I thought Museums were dead. Until after I traveled to some places myself did I start to realize the life of museums.

A place consists mainly of its past and present in terms of time. When you are visiting one place, the existing scenery (пейзаж), streets and buildings give you chances to understand its present easily. But when it comes to the past of a place, things are different. With time going by, the past is always staying in the past. Sometimes with the new constructions, a place's past can even be burnt into ashes.

In most cases, museums preserve (сохраняют) part of the original appearance of a certain place and present plenty of information in terms of objects and pictures that one cannot obtain from the present. Only when information from the present and that from the past are combined could one obtain a relatively integrate image of the place. That is why the Japanese woman insisted (утверждать, настаивать, настойчиво требовать) that she visit the Culture and History Museum in Beijing. Like most of other cities, Skyscrapers, glass walls and the modern street scenes are all over the place in this city. The red and gray walls, the palaces and small courtyards (внутренний двор), which were typical scenes in the past, can only be found in the vintage (старинные) photographs in the museum.

to insist stubbornly — упрямо настаивать

Thus, visiting museums is a very effective way to understand a place's past, therefore one can get a whole picture of a place that one visits.