Forbidden City visitor cap to stay during holiday

The Palace Museum has grappled with overwhelming crowds for years. More than 15 million people visited in 2014, topping all museums in the world.[Photo/Xinhua]

If the daily limit could be kept under 80,000, the museum would accept a maximum of 560,000 during the entire week.

To prevent uninformed and eager tourists from being kept out at the door, the Palace Museum has adopted several measures, including informing all tour guides in Beijing and all travel agencies in the northern part of the country and making arrangements with the assistance of online travel service providers to ensure tourists avoid peak hours.

To narrow the gap between peak and low season and reduce the hordes of tourists during high season, the museum will also consider a continuation of its program that made the first Wednesday of each month free entry.

The free-visit day ran from December 2014 to April 2015. The museum said it will unveil more details soon.

The China National Tourism Administration drafted the standard for capacity limits at scenic spots nationwide in July.

The top-rated scenic spots in more than 30 provincial regions around the country all set a daily limit.

Many scenic spots shut down their ticket selling spots during the National Day holiday.

Ctrip, one of China's leading online travel service providers, based in Shanghai, estimated that scenic spots including the Palace Museum, West Lake, Gulangyu Island of Xiamen, Jiuzhaigou Valley of Sichuan province and the Bund in Shanghai will be overcrowded in the coming holiday.

Fang Hongfeng, head of ticket department at Ctrip, said China should encourage all scenic spots to adopt online booking systems that, he said, will lower the cost for tourists and help scenic spots monitor the traffic.