Forbidden City visitor cap to stay during holiday

The Forbidden City will not lift the cap on the number of daily visitors allowed entry during "Golden Week" - the National Day holiday that lasts seven days.[Photo/Xinhua]

Huge crowds expected daily; most buy their tickets online in advance

The Forbidden City, also known as the Palace Museum, will not lift the cap on the number of daily visitors allowed entry during "Golden Week" - the National Day holiday that lasts seven days.

The upper limit for daily visitors from Oct 1 to 7 will stay at 80,000, of which 50,000 must be booked in advance online using true identities.

According to a statement released by the Palace Museum, the online platform will allow 30,000 visitors in the morning and 20,000 in the afternoon each day.

The Palace Museum has grappled with overwhelming crowds for years. More than 15 million people visited 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.

The Palace Museum kicked off the policy capping the number of visitors on June 13. The crowd alarm was sounded 25 times since the summer peak season started.

It is expected that during this year's National Day holiday, crowds will be a challenge to control, given there are currently several exhibits that have already been drawing huge crowds, including the display of nearly 300 treasures, the paintings Along the River During the Qingming Festival and Five Oxen, and the calligraphy piece Letter to Boyuan.

The Palace Museum said in the statement that it hopes the number of visitors during the holiday week will drop to ease the strain.

According to the museum, total visits during the weeklong holiday in 2012 was 800,000. The number was 710,000 in 2013 and 640,000 in 2014.