Palace Museum sees a surge of tourists in off-season

Tourists wait in line to visit the new areas open inside the Palace Museum  in Beijing, Oct 11, 2015.[Photo by Jiang Dong/asianewsphoto]

The number of visitors to the Palace Museum in Beijing has increased by more than 200,000 people in less than a month after the National Day holidays, according to museum on Sunday.

In previous years, the Palace Museum regularly saw a huge drop in the number of visitors after the Golden Week at the beginning of October and prepared for the off-season.

However, this year, since the 90th anniversary of the museum's founding on Oct 10, it has received 70,000 to 80,000 visitors each day, reaching its maximum number of daily visitors. The museum even took measures to control the flow of visitors on Oct 13 and 17.

Meanwhile, compared to the same period last year, tickets presold online rose by 23 times more, with 20,000 tickets sold each day. A year ago, hundreds or more than 1,000 tickets at best were sold daily.

The limitation of 80,000 daily tourists, the opening of new areas, and new exhibitions at the Palace Museum have achieved the remarkable effect of scattering crowds during peak season and attracting more people during the off-season.

Museum director Shan Jixiang said exhibition of Shi Qu Bao Ji, a collection of ancient classics and paintings compiled during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and new areas open to public for free attracted a large number of visitors from home and abroad, and it also helped guide them to see the east and west wings of the Palace Museum. The diversions released the pressure on the central axis of the museum.

In the future, the Palace Museum will also establish a database to realize better visitor management, Shan added.