The Palace Museum has just issued an announcement that from November 1 this year, that is, the off-season for visiting receptions, it will further optimize the measures of time-based appointments: morning appointments and morning appointments, and admission deadlines of 12 noon; Admission for afternoon tickets starts at 11 a.m.
According to the new regulations, the daily appointment of the Palace Museum is divided into two periods, morning and afternoon, with a one-hour intersection between the two periods, the deadline for admission in the morning session is 12 o'clock, and the start of admission time for the afternoon session is 11 o'clock. Zhang Bohui, deputy director of the Palace Museum's opening management office, said that this can leave a more ample buffer time for the audience, so as not to wait too long outside the noon gate, and also allow the audience to get enough time to visit.
The Palace Museum will remind visitors to enter the hospital on time according to the appointment time through WeChat mini program pop-up windows and text messages to visitors who have successfully booked tickets. "This initiative also applies to older and underage audiences."
According to the staff, if the audience checks in after 12 o'clock in the morning, the scene will prompt "expired"; In the afternoon, if the audience checks in before 11 o'clock, it will be marked "Not valid". Regardless of whether the reservation time is in the morning or afternoon, visitors who cannot visit as scheduled can apply for a refund in the mini program before 20 o'clock on the day of visit.
Visitors have made a total of 3 no-shows, and will be restricted from purchasing tickets for a certain period of time.
Li Mulin, Intelligent Service Group of the Digital and Information Department of the Palace Museum, introduced that the Palace Museum has implemented single-day flow restrictions and real-name ticket sales since 2015, and has fully promoted online ticket sales since 2017. During the summer and Mid-Autumn Festival National Day holidays, a series of measures such as the release of the "Visiting Instructions", the launch of a one-stop visitor service center, and the opening of various fast lanes have effectively eased the peak of passenger flow and improved the efficiency of the admission process. However, in the actual reception work, it was found that under the condition that the number of morning and afternoon tickets was the same, about 50% of the audience who booked afternoon tickets were admitted in the morning, that is, nearly 65% to 75% of the audience concentrated in the morning admission during the day. This phenomenon will be more prominent during peak passenger flow periods such as summer vacation and small long vacation, and the phenomenon of admission queuing and in-hospital visits will obviously appear from 8:30 am to 10:30 am, which will have a negative impact on the audience's visiting experience. The introduction of the new regulations is also to improve the visiting environment.
According to the statistics of the Forbidden City, the peak of ticket inspection and admission in the morning period in the hospital is concentrated at about 8 am to 10:30 am, and individual visitors and group audiences are concentrated in the hospital, resulting in dense congestion in Duanmen Square, Noonday Outer Square and Noongate Cave. According to the current distribution of passenger flow on the open day, it can be seen that since the audience enters the hospital, the middle road from the noonday gate, Taihe Gate, Taihe Hall, Qianqing Palace, Royal Garden and other areas, with the movement of passenger flow, there is a dense passenger flow in turn; The noonday exhibition hall, the Wenhua Hall area, the treasure hall, the watch hall, the Cining Palace garden, the east tube and other areas have successively seen crowd gathering after 10 o'clock; The ice cellar, Jianting Square, and Jingyunmen areas have a small peak of passenger flow at noon. Wang Bo, director of the Palace Museum's security department, said that with the further optimization of ticket entry time, these peak passenger flows will also be dispersed, and the visitor experience will also increase. At the same time, the purpose of this initiative is to further ensure the safety of the ancient buildings, cultural relics and visitors of the Forbidden City. First, by easing the peak pressure of passenger flow, it is evenly distributed to the morning and afternoon, which can shorten the waiting time of the audience. Effectively reduce the pressure of security check during peak hours, reduce congestion during peak passenger flow in the hospital, and improve the safety factor of visits. By reducing crowding and gathering, it plays a positive role in protecting the safety of cultural relics and ancient buildings.