A technician from the conservation and research department of the Shanxi Museum takes photo of a relic to record details. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

When visitors gaze at cultural relics from ancient times at the Shanxi Museum in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, few of them know that a team of skilled technicians – doctors of sorts – is backstage keeping the precious artifacts in good condition.

They work for the conservation and research department of the museum and resort everything from murals to porcelain, bronze ware to books.

Fragments may be missing, but the technicians can restore objects to their original appearance.

Nowadays, restorations not only rely on traditional crafts but also on many newly developed technologies and instruments, such as digital microscopes and scanning electron microscopes, making the work more scientific.