Misbehaving tourists can now be banned from the Palace Museum. (Photo : www.blog.airpaz.com)
In order to tackle the trend of uncivilized behavior among Chinese tourists, the Palace Museum has blacklisted 2,500 visitors found guilty of misbehaving since June, part of an effort to protect ancient relics and eliminate illegal vendors, ticket scalpers and litterers.
With the Palace Museum reaching its peak visitors during the weeklong National Day holiday, improper behavior from tourists, such as vandalism, ticket scalping and littering, have drawn media attention and public criticism.
In order to deter this behavior, the Palace Museum has required people to give their real names when purchasing a ticket and has banned 2,500 people linked to misconduct from buying tickets since June.
The ban lasts an undisclosed period of time.
According to museum director Shan Jixiang, the blacklist system has been successful in decreasing misbehavior among tourists and a wider range of improper conduct will be targeted in the future.
"The system was introduced mainly against ticket scalpers, illegal tourist guides and tour advertising distributors. It has had its expected effect," said Shan.
"Some other misbehavior such as scribbling graffiti and carving at public facilities, as well as selling unauthorized souvenirs, will also be marked by the system, and violators will be banned from visiting the site," added Shan.
The Palace Museum has also recently introduced visitor capping to deal with its overwhelming crowds. The maximum number of daily visitors is capped at 80,000, with 50,000 needing to be booked in advance.
On Friday, the remaining 30,000 tickets sold on-site sold out within two hours.
According to lawyer Zhao Li, "we need to increase punishments for those who damage cultural relics" and "perhaps they should even face a criminal penalty."
In September, two lovers carved their names inside a heart on a 300-year-old bronze relic at the Palace Museum. The two have yet to be caught.
