Forbidden City limits tourists for holiday
- Source: Global Times
- [08:37 March 28 2011]
- Comments
Visitors swarm outside the Forbidden City on July 13, 2010. Photo: Wang Zi/GT
The Forbidden City will control how many visitors may enter each day and will only allow one-way tours during this year's International Labor Day holiday, the first time such regulations have been issued to protect the majestic palace.
On April 30, May 1 and 2, visitors can only enter the Forbidden City via the Wumen Gate to the south and exit from the Shenwumen Gate to the north or Donghuamen Gate to the east, according to a press release issued by the Forbidden City's publicity office.
The number of daily visitors will be restricted to 80,000. A total of 40,000 group tickets will be available for travel agencies to book online at gugong.228.com.cn, the official group ticket booking website for the venue, which will become operational on April 10. The remaining 40,000 individual tickets will be sold at ticket counters.
During past Golden Week holidays, the number of tourists passing through the Forbidden City per day nearly reached 150,000, well exceeding its capacity, Forbidden City spokesman Feng Naien was quoted as saying by the China News.
This holiday, electronic display screens and notice boards will inform tourists waiting in line how many remaining tickets are available, Feng was quoted as saying by China National Radio.
The plan is a measure to better protect both the Forbidden City and tourists.
During national holidays, there are often large crowds of tourists at the Forbidden City's entrances, posing a danger to both visitors and the palace.
The overabundance of tourists also puts additional burdens on preservation and protection efforts for the Forbidden City's cultural relics, according to the press release.
Foot traffic has worn away the palace's paving stones, and the amount of carbon dioxide exhaled by the massive numbers of tourists has corroded the buildings. Further still, some tourists carve into the walls and relics of the palace, according to an August 20, 2010, Global Times report.
A tourist spotted graffiti on a horizontal calligraphy-inscribed board mounted some 30 meters up in Baohedian (the Hall of Preserving Harmony) on June 28 last year. The board was not permanently damaged, but the culprit - and how he made the marks - remain a mystery.
Tourists can dial 6552-2502, 8500-7061 and 8500-7067 or log onto dpm.org.cn for more information.
Global Times
