Nanjing Museum’s VR Immersive Exhibition Now Open to the Public

The “Mapping the World – Great Universal Geographic Map” VR

immersive exhibition officially opened to the public at the Nanjing Museum.

The exhibition is built around one of the museum’s most prized artifacts: the Great

Universal Geographic Map, a Ming Dynasty world map and one of the earliest and

most detailed Chinese-language maps of the world. By combining 720° panoramic

immersion, 4K ultra-HD visuals, and large-scale interactive VR technology, the

exhibition brings Ming Dynasty history to life in a highly visual, story-driven format.

Originally created during the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty, the map includes not

only an oval-shaped world map but also astronomical diagrams—such as the Nine

Heavens Chart and Celestial Globe—as well as illustrations of ships and animals

scattered across continents and oceans.

On opening day, young visitors stepped into the virtual map and explored the ancient

worldview through VR headsets. Inside the 100+ square meter space, visitors could

freely walk, interact, and even take part in "drawing" the map themselves. “We want

visitors not just to see the map, but to step into it and become part of the story—to

understand how people in the Ming Dynasty envisioned the world starting from the

empire of Great Ming,” said the museum’s curatorial team.

Interestingly, characters like the "Lion-Goat Beast" featured in the exhibition are not

fictional creations but accurate reconstructions based on original illustrations from the

historical map. This attention to detail reflects the museum's balance between

historical authenticity and immersive design.