A £5.5 million turnover multimedia company in York with a genius for creating high-tech museums will be showing the Chinese how it's done and putting itself in pole position for mega-million pound contracts.

Juliana Delaney, director of 132-staff The Continuum Group, is setting off next week on a whistle-stop tour of China, which plans to build 200 new museums before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and needs the help of the innovative firm.

Under the Continuum umbrella at St Edmunds House, in Margaret Street, are Heritage Projects, Action Marketing, as well as Past Forward, which constructs exhibitions, Mindwave, which produces spectacular interactive displays and Continuum Consulting, specialising in feasibility studies for the leisure industry.

Juliana sets off next Wednesday on a gruelling two-week schedule, visiting up to three museums per day, meeting museum representatives and presenting at seminars in cities like Guangzho, Beijing and Shanghai.

She will be part of a six-person delegation organised by the British Council, which will include representatives of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Life science centre in Newcastle, the ECSITE group of UK science centres and the Manchester Museum.

She said: "Continuum has been looking at emerging overseas markets for modern museum and leisure development. We've already identified the Eastern European bloc and have set up an office in Estonia.

"But China is a huge market, and this is part of our research to see what the Chinese authorities want and examine what skills we have to offer them."

The Chinese were very keen to learn from Continuum's expertise, particularly its ability to create and manage fascinating museums that were profitable. Many of China's "display and label" museums had been unable to pay their way.

The visit is yet another high-level link between York and China. Several Chinese delegations have recently visited York, the latest hosted at St Edmunds House last weekend, and the city played host to the Chinese ambassador, His Excellency Zha Peixin in April.

It comes at a time when The Continuum Group is celebrating the opening of a new innovative interactive exhibition, Routes to Your Roots, at Wakefield's National Coal Mining Museum for England.

Updated: 10:03 Thursday, July 29, 2004