Imagine watching robots perform the Peking Opera or taking a tour inside the human body or experiencing five times the earth's gravitational pull.

These are no delusional dreams but a reality at the newly expanded Shanghai Science and Technology Museum which will open its six new interactive exhibition halls on Saturday (May 14th).

"Our new exhibition halls will better integrate science, technology and arts, providing more exciting exhibits and activities," Hu Xuezeng, a deputy curator of the museum, said yesterday.

However, the museum will not hike its current admission fee of 60 yuan (US$7.2), he added.

Located on the second and third floor of the museum, the six new exhibition halls are entitled "World of Robots," "Human and Health," "Information Age," "World of Astronautics," "Exploration" and "Earth, Our Home" respectively.

The museum spent 270 million yuan over the past three years on the major revamp - adding 10,000 square meters of exhibition space, almost doubling the gallery's original scale, officials said.

A widely hailed limelight of the new section is the exhibition hall of robots where visitors can watch various cute robots dance to different music, play a fighting section of the Peking Opera or even perform a jazz concert.

Visitors can also play chess or archery with the robots although the former's possibility of winning will be very slim.

In the astronautics hall, visitors will have the opportunity to imbibe various experiences only tailored for astronauts, including hypergravity and rotational training.

"In this hall, a visitor can experience as much as five times or as little as 1/6th of his or her own weight," Hu revealed.

Another important entertainment facility will be a mini-train journey of the human interior - including mouth, lung, stomach and guts.

It will resemble a similar roller-coaster ride popular at Hollywood's Universal Studios.

Editor: Wing