Troubled by excessive visitors, the Palace Museum, or Forbidden City, in Beijing will adopt an electronic ticket-checking system from May onwards to control its crowd flow, the Beijing Times reports.

 

The new system will keep a real-time record of visitors inside the museum, and automatically inform the ticket office to halt ticket sales once the number exceeds the museum's maximum reception capacity.

 

The Palace Museum, one of China's most comprehensive museums in terms of history and art, was established as the foundation of the palace that formed the center of power over two dynasties, the Ming and the Qing, and now holds their collections of treasures. It has topped the must-see list of almost every visitor to the capital city.

 

In recent years, the number of daily visitors to the Palace Museum has averaged 50,000 during "golden weeks," the week-long national holidays observed three times a year in China. Superfluous tourists have caused damage to cultural relics in the museum.

 

(CRI November 27, 2006)