When Reginald Johnston, a British scholar (学者) , first walked into the Forbidden City in 1919, most palaces weren't allowed to visit. But a century later, when the People' Republic of China is to celebrate its 70th founding anniversary (周年纪念) in October, the 599-year-old palace complex (宫殿群) becomes the world's busiest museum.
Open to the public
In the old days, ordinary people could only imagine what it looked like inside. When the Palace Museum was founded in 1925, the public could go into the palaces. Now 80% of the total area of the museum is open to the public and it will increase to 8500 in 2025.
Embracing (拥抱) the world
"It felt like you were hit by hundreds of years of history," Christopher Allen from Britain said. "I begin to love its history and culture.”
The Forbidden City is becoming more open and friendly to visitors. It attracted about 3. 5 million visitors from abroad and 9 overseas (海外的) exhibitions were held in 2018. The Palace Museum exhibition becomes a cultural phenomenon (文化现象) everywhere it goes.
Attracting the youth
On the Palace Museum's online store on Taobao, you can find more than 10, 000 cultural products. The ones with cute and humorous pictures of emperors are very popular.
Some favourite products also go offline. For example, the "Kangxi Emperor's Favourite Chocolate", the most popular drink, always has people lining up (排队) to get a taste.
As a child, Xu Jing often rode a bike in front of the Meridian Gate (午门) . "I had little memory of the museum then, but now I am more willing to visit it after watching several popular TV shows about the museum," she said.
