Some 182,000 people visited the Forbidden City on October 2 during the National Day holiday, an all-time high not only for the former imperial palace in the heart of Beijing, but for any museum in the world, according to the museum's president, Shan Jixiang.
But with such overwhelming crowds come problems, such as children getting separated from their parents, people defecating on the ground because they can't get to the nearest toilet, and visitors being unable to get access to popular exhibits.
The museum's managers continue trying new tactics to manage these problems, but ever-growing masses during big holidays have fueled a debate on whether some of the 1.8 million pieces in the museum's collection should be housed in a new location, drawing away some of the crowds.
Fight your way out
"I was exhausted when finally coming out of the Forbidden City," said 28-year-old Cao Qiao, who came to Beijing to visit his brother during the holiday week. "I felt like I was suffocating with so many people around."
The Forbidden City was the most uncomfortable among Beijing's dozens of tourist attractions between October 2 and October 5, the peak of the holiday, according to the municipal Beijing Travel Committee. Between 10 am and 3 pm on those days, the committee's tourist comfort index for the Forbidden City fell to 1 at some points, the worst possible ranking on a scale of 5.
"In such a noisy and crowded environment, I couldn't concentrate to appreciate the architecture and the antiques within," said Cao.
After finally fighting their way out of the crowds, many tourists sat on the ground at the bus stop near the exit, exhausted.
The president of the Forbidden City once said his goal was "to enable tourists to have a dignified visit to the Forbidden City." As the number of domestic and foreign tourists grows, the question of how to balance the site's popularity and its limited space and capacity is increasingly acute.
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