Palace Museum committed to offering visitors quality services: curator

The Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, has been committed to offering visitors quality services, according to Shan Jixiang, curator of the museum, on Wednesday.

He made these remarks during a lecture organized by Xinhuanet.

The Palace Museum is an imperial house encapsulating the essence of traditional Chinese architectural accomplishment and harboring legions of cultural relics.

To offer visitors quality services in this majestic place, Shan and his team made conscious efforts and brought about outstanding changes.

Diverse approaches for buying tickets

It used to be painful to line up for tickets of the Palace Museum, especially in the high season, Shan introduced.

The Palace Museum made noteworthy efforts to increase ticket selling efficiency.

On one hand, the Palace Museum added ticket windows; on the other hand, it improved online ticket service to make tickets available for visitors, according to him.

Today, more than 50 percent of visitors buy tickets online, 30 percent get tickets through QR code payment at site, and only 20 percent buy tickets at windows, Shan said.

Rest chairs are everywhere

In the past, there were no chairs for visitors who wished to take a rest. They had no way but to sit on the ground when they were tired, Shan said.

So, the Palace Museum began to prepare chairs for visitors.

For example, wooden benches around trees is one viable method as they could accommodate more visitors, he mentioned.

More relaxed security check

Five years ago, the security check gates were usually jammed with people. But now, visitors can have a brand-new experience featuring good order and efficiency, as security check system now focuses more on their feelings, according to Shan.

This enables a pleasant tour, both physically and mentally, he added.

Take photos as you like

The Palace Museum is a camera-friendly museum, Shan said.

Provided that visitors do not damage cultural relics, and do not interfere in others' visit, the Palace Museum is open for all visitors to take photos, he added.

The 600-plus-year-old Palace Museum, home to 24 Chinese emperors, is recognized as one of world's top five museums by the Museum Association of UNESCO.

The other four are the British Museum in the UK, the Louvre Museum in France, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the U.S., and the State Hermitage Museum in Russia.