BEIJING - China has ordered its public museums and cultural heritage institutions to halt commercial operations that run contrary to public interests, after an exclusive club was discovered in the Forbidden City earlier this year.

In a regulation issued on Wednesday, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) said commercial operations at historic sites should be aimed at providing better services for the public and pose no risk to the safety of cultural relics.

The commercial operations should be approved by cultural heritage protection administrations, according to the regulation.

The regulation comes after a nationwide investigation into luxury clubs run by public museums and other cultural heritage institutions.

The public voiced fierce criticism after the discovery of an exclusive club in the Forbidden City's Jianfu Palace, where membership is reported to cost 1 million yuan ($156,600).

Also earlier in the year, the management of a high-end hotel under construction in the world's largest imperial garden, the Imperial Summer Resort (Summer Mountain Villa) in the city of Chengde in North China's Hebei province, had attempted to turn the garden into an exclusive club, before their attempts were shot down by the local government.