Palace Museum planning to cap number of visitors

More than 15 million people visited the Palace Museum in 2014, topping all museums in the world.[Photo/Xinhua]

The Palace Museum in Beijing unveiled a plan on Tuesday to control the number of visitors after dealing with overwhelming crowds for years.

According to Shan Jixiang, director of the museum, the draft plan sets an upper limit for daily visitors at 80,000. The proposal is awaiting approval from various authorities that have jurisdiction.

"It's a must, because our museum is too crowded during peak season," Shan said. "We have to be responsible for visitors' safety."

No specific date to kick off the new policy was announced, but Shan said it could begin as early as summer. He said there was some urgency to the plan in light of the deadly human stampede on Shanghai's Bund on New Year's Eve. The sheer number of visitors, along with inadequate crowd control measures, were at the root of the tragedy, he said.

More than 15 million people visited the Palace Museum in 2014, topping all museums in the world. Second on the list is the Louvre in Paris, which saw 9.2 million visitors last year.

On 42 days last year, more than 80,000 people poured into the Forbidden City, the former royal palace, which covers an area of 1.12 square kilometers at the center of Beijing. On two days, the palace received more than 140,000 visitors.