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September 20, 2025

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Home » Opinion » China Knowledge

Walk-in entry to museums a boon for many, but challenges remain

By Wan Lixin | 00:01 UTC+8 September 20, 2025 | Print Edition

BEGINNING this month, individual visitors no longer need a reservation code to enter Shanghai Museum at the People’s Square, in an extension of the practice first implemented at its east branch in the Pudong New Area.

Even though reservations would still be in place during peak periods, including national holidays, school vacations and major special exhibitions, this latest adjustment marks a major step in making one of the most sought-after tourist venues in the city more accessible.

While reservations have proved effective in ensuring orderly entry to museums, galleries and other public institutions, equally obvious are some of the drawbacks.

Some visitors, particularly elderly tourists, belatedly found that they could not enter due to their failure to make reservations or book tickets online.

Similar frustration was also shared by visitors who, while perambulating, found themselves in front of a cultural landmark but were precluded from entering for the lack of reservation. This effectively deprived them the joy of serendipity.

For these accidental visitors without prior reservation, on-the-spot reservation or ticket-booking could be difficult, since tickets to some popular venues are fully booked much in advance, particularly during peak seasons and holidays, which translate into frustration for many, not just seniors not adept at negotiating the digital formalities.

Statistics suggest that, given our aging society and seniors’ growing readiness to travel, gray-haired travelers already accounted for 20 percent of the total, a formidable segment of demographic who might somewhat be intimidated by the digital reservation or booking. Often they need to first follow an official WeChat account or download an app before they can input the requisite personal information at the designated area, if they could navigate the fine print and correctly tick the labyrinth of options.

While such problems are yet to be satisfactorily addressed in visits to hospitals, banks, booking railway tickets, or hailing a taxi, how to enable many to enjoy hassle-free visits to museum should also be prioritized.

Recent statistics show that last year museums in China were visited nearly 1.5 billion times.

The surging visits overstretch museum capacity to accommodate, prompting many venues to institute reservations as a panacea for efficient control, without taking full account of how some demographics might be impacted.

Apparently when reservations are let go, museums would inevitably face some challenge in easing the crowds. But some local museums have shown considerable ingenuity in this aspect.

For instance, during the recent summer holiday, Sanxingdui Museum in Guanghan, southwest China’s Sichuan Province, extended its opening hours from 8:30am-6pm to 8:30am-8pm, enabling it to accommodate in excess of 20,000 visitors a day. In addition, the museum remains open all year round except for one day on the traditional Chinese New Year’s Eve, quite a departure from the prevailing practice of having museums closed on Mondays.

Fuller exploitation of museum resources also include hosting itinerant shows. Take for example the ongoing Chu culture relics exhibition at Minhang District Museum, featuring 129 select exhibits from three museums in Anhui Province.

This exhibition affords students and residents alike an ideal place to learn about the history of the State of Chu (770-223 BC), without subjecting the visitors to the ordeal of long travel to museums in Anhui.

No reservation is needed for the exhibition, since the museum called off the requirement in May 2023.

Generally speaking, the number of visitors to this museum is of manageable scale.

Still, visitors could show their resourcefulness in avoiding a crowd. During peak times, for instance, they could plan carefully to avoid the crowd by visiting in the early morning or late afternoon.

In the case of extreme crowds, the museum could try controlling the flow by limiting the number of visitors at the entrance.

In this aspect, museum curators could also join hands in easing traffic by diverting visitors to other cultural venues, thus easing the surge in traffic to a single venue.

By the end of last year, registered museums in China numbered 7,046, most of them small or medium-sized museums scattered here and there, and directing some visitors to these smaller ones would be a win-win situation for all cultural facilities.

China Knowledge


 

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