The Shanghai Science and Technology Museum is more than four times the size of the Otago Museum and attracts about a million visitors each year.
A memorandum of understanding between the two museums was signed recently when Otago Museum Trust Board chairwoman Margaret Collins, museum chief executive Shimrath Paul, and exhibitions, development and planning director Clare Wilson visited Shanghai as part of an Otago delegation to the World Expo celebrations.
The agreement opened up prospects for jointly-developed science shows to tour other parts of China, hosted by the Shanghai technology museum, and to tour other parts of New Zealand, hosted by the Otago institution.
Such initiatives could eventually generate more income for the Otago Museum, Ms Wilson said.
Staff at the two institutions would also share new skills and the new collaborative approach would enable Chinese people and New Zealanders to see science shows that otherwise would not have been created.
The new memorandum also opened up promising scope for the Otago Museum's partnership arrangement with the Otago Polytechnic to develop future science shows.
She was "very excited" about the closer links with the Chinese institution, which was "a massive place by world standards".
"I feel quite challenged to be able to come up with ideas and projects that will work for both countries and be successful."
Before changing course to become a science and technology museum, the Shanghai institution began life as a natural history museum in 1868, the same year the Otago Museum was established.
