"I wish I could come here every day," said Zou Yuan, 26, who visited the China National Film Museum (CNFM) in northeastern Beijing for the first time on New Year's Day.
Zou, an editor at the 21st Century Publishing House, and her friends visited several exhibits at the CNFM and even took in a movie, "If You Are The One." She had high praise for the museum.
The facility, officially opened on Feb. 10, 2007, used to charge 20 yuan (about 2.90 U.S. dollars) before it adopted a free admission policy in March, 2008.
"I learned that it became free at the beginning of last year, but its location deterred me," she said. The museum is more than 20 km from downtown Beijing, even farther than the renowned 798 Art Zone.
The CNFM is among one of the 1,000-strong museums in China to become free in 2008. Admission fees were abolished at national and provincial museums, except for a few world-famous cultural relics such as the Forbidden City and Summer Palace, both in Beijing.
"The free entry policy was intended to bring more people to share the cultural treasures in museums," said Zhang Bai, deputy head of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.
But the CNFM's visitor numbers did not soar as expected. About 1,000 people visit the facility daily on average, said Song Lichen, an official with the CNFM. The figure for 2007 was 500.
Things are very different at the Capital Museum, in downtown Beijing. The museum issues 4,000 admission tickets a day, but usually visitors have to reserve tickets three days in advance.
During the Olympics, there was a day when 14,700 people showed up, some hundreds of them lining up hours ahead of opening time.
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION?
While location might be the main factor in the property market, in the museum world, there are other things to consider.
Through Dec. 13, the Hubei Provincial Museum in Wuhan, capital of the central province, had more than 1.4 million visitors since it went to a free admission system in November 2007. That was almost six times the usual annual figure.
Wan Qun, a teacher at Huazhong Normal University, visited the museum 10 times. He told Xinhua on Dec. 13, "Free entry brought the seemingly lofty museums down to earth."
In sharp contrast with the provincial museum is the nearby Hubei Arts Museum. About 21,130 people entered the museum in the first month of free entry; for the provincial museum, the figure reached 200,000.
"We were ready to handle the worst crowding, but the visitor numbers did not surprise us," said Wang Xiaohong, an official with the museum.
Shen Wei, deputy director of the department of fine arts at the Hubei Academy of Fine Arts, recalled overhearing something that might explain the low visitor numbers for the art museum. A child told his parents that he wanted to visit the art museum after the provincial one and the parents replied, "The items there are beyond your understanding."
Dull exhibits with boring explanations won't win visitors in the long run, said Wang Hongxing, head of the Hubei Provincial Museum.
SOME UNWELCOME GUESTS
The visitors themselves are not all perfect.
"Due to the lack of arts education in the museum, free admission only means another form of scenic spot to most of the visitors," said Ding Chen, a volunteer guide at the Shanghai Museum. "Some are playing games, other are text messaging with children buzzing everywhere."
However mixed the picture, there is no turning back. By the end of 2009, the museums on the free entry list will increase to 1,400.
"We have to constantly invent new ways to keep visitors coming, like new exhibitions and lectures," said Wang Hongxing.
(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2009)
