Ways to Ease Visitor Pressure at Forbidden City

Beijing political advisors on Monday proposed a new solution to ease the pressure as visitors to the ancient Forbidden City increase during the National Day holidays, Beijing Morning Post reports.

Advisors recommended that the Forbidden City, which houses the Palace Museum, could separate its museum function from the landmark tourist site at the heart of Beijing.

The advisors said that the Forbidden City in the future could only be used as a tourist destination to showcase the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Relocating the palace museum devoted to exhibiting the extensive collection of imperial artwork and artifacts from the Ming and Qing dynasties was also recommended.

In addition, of all the damage suffered at world heritage sites, the human impact makes up about 30 percent of the damage while the other 70 percent comes from natural causes. The large amount of visitors has a huge impact to the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and the Great Wall in Beijing.

In order to protect the sites, the advisors said that special management should be taken into consideration, including different levels of cultural relic protection zones, leisure and exercise areas at scenic sites and limiting the number of large group activities.