On October 15, the 2019 International Symposium on the Development of Natural Science Museums under the Belt and Road Initiative & the 2019 Annual Conference of CSNSM was held in Beijing. It is sponsored by the Chinese Association of Natural Science Museums, supported by UNESCO, China Association for Science and Technology and Foundation for the Development of Science and Technology Museums in China, undertaken by the China Science and Technology Museum and co-sponsored by the Beijing Planetarium and other units. More than 600 Chinese and foreign guests from 5 international organizations and 35 national science and technology organizations from 28 countries attended the symposium.

At the symposium, witnessed by Cheng Donghong, Chairman of the Chinese Association of Natural Science Museums, and other leaders, some member units of Chinese Association of Natural Science Museums formally signed bilateral agreements with several foreign natural science museums or related institutions. Among them, the Planetarium and the Planetarium of the Alexandria Library in Egypt signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation.

On October 16, four parallel conferences of the symposium were held in China Science and Technology Museum, China Railway Museum and Planetarium. In the Planetarium, where the discussion on the theme of "New Ideas and New Realities on the Construction of Popular Science Exhibition and Education Resources" was held, a total of 10 representatives of natural science museums from Asia, Europe and Africa participated in it. Wang Xiaofeng, Director of the Planetarium and Li Junkai, Director of the Foreign Cooperation Division of BJAST fully exchanged innovative ideas of the construction of popular science exhibition and education resources with the guests, discussed profoundly on the ideas and methods of exhibition design and program creation, and shared the practical experience of the construction and operation of science and technology museums. Afterwards, the guests went to the Planetarium to visit the universe tour exhibition where they exchanged ideas on the production of the exhibition, and watched the Wonderful Starry Sky, the Planetarium's homemade popular science film in the Planetarium Hall.