Beijing is to restrict visitor numbers at heritage sites during
the Olympic Games next year in order to protect vulnerable ancient
buildings.
Shu Xiaofeng, director of the Beijing Municipal Cultural
Heritage Bureau, said heritage departments would monitor visitor
numbers at ancient buildings during the Games, and plan in advance
to protect heritage sites.
But bureau officials would not respond on Monday to questions on
how many visitors are expected to visit sites such as the Forbidden
City, the Great Wall and the Summer Palace during the Olympic
Games.
Experts have calculated that the appropriate daily number for
the Forbidden City at 30,000, and the maximum number at around
50,000.
But more than 114,800 tourists visited the Forbidden City on May
1, the first day of China's week-long Labor Day holiday.
Shu said that no major maintenance project would be started at
heritage sites in Beijing's urban area next year so as to avoid
inconvenience for tourists.
Beijing plans to invest 600 million yuan (US$77.92 million) in
repairing and protecting ancient buildings in the next five years,
but there will be no major maintenance projects in the urban area
next year, and all the projects will focus on ancient buildings in
the suburbs.
?
Last year, a Beijing resident filed a lawsuit against the Forbidden
City for failing to lower admission price and clearly notifying
visitors that many of the Forbidden City sites were closed for
renovation.
The Hall of Supreme Harmony, the grandest hall in the Forbidden
City, has been closed for renovations since January 2006 and will
reopen at the end of 2007.
A maintenance project on the ancient Confucian Temple and
Imperial College, the most extensive ancient maintenance project in
Beijing in the past 50 years with an investment of eight million
yuan, was expected to be completed before the opening of the
Olympic Games, said Shu.
All heritage sites would have Chinese and English signs and
introductions before the Games, he added.]
(Xinhua News Agency May 22, 2007)