Visitors queue in rain outside Shanghai Museum at People’s Square yesterday. To mark the International Museum Day, which fell on Friday, more than 100 museums in Shanghai allowed free or discounted entry to the public from Friday to Sunday. Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, Shanghai Film Museum, Shanghai Guanfu Museum, and Shanghai Natural History Museum offered 50 percent discount on tickets. The International Museum Day prompted most museums to highlight the depth of their treasures and range of their exhibits. A total of 254,775 visitors made the trip to the museums over the three days.

Shanghai Museum drew large groups of visitors on Saturday, among them Mike Rippon and his family from England. They made the museum their first stop on a three-week tour of China.

“This is the best place for us to get a brief introduction to Chinese culture,” said Rippon, who added that the family was also pleased to see an exhibition of landscape paintings from the Tate Britain in London. “I hope we will see more exhibitions from China when we go back home as well.”

Many expats found ties between their motherlands and China in the museum. Rahul Rathod, a Belgian of Indian ancestry, lingered in the coin collection room, taking pictures of ancient Indian coins.

“It seems both India and China had coins with seeds pressed onto their surfaces,” he said. “It is amazing that the two ancient empires had so much in common.”

Shamni Pande, a freelance writer from India who has lived in Shanghai for two years, was fascinated by an exhibition of bronze vessels.

“It’s remarkable how sophisticated these are, considering their age,” said Pande.