Museum Day: 58 BJ museums stay open, 37 offer free admission

Every Monday is the day when museums in the city close for maintenance, but this Monday 58 city museums stay open to celebrate International Museum Day. Among these, 37 including the Beijing Luxun Museum and the Mei Lanfang Memorial Museum offer free admission to visitors.

Recalling Beijing museums 60 year history at the Beijing Ancient Architecture Museum

This year, the city will use the slogan "The charm of Beijing museum humanity” to host a variety of activities for one week around May 18. On May 18, Beijing Ancient Architecture Museum (BAAM) will become the "main site" where 64 of the city’s museums will "set up stalls and booths" and a large photo exhibition will be hosted entitled "Beijing museums 60 year history: A wonderful journey, a magnificent movement."

Yu Ping, vice director of Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage, stated that "due to space restrictions, BAAM tickets for that day have already been distributed in advance to over 1,000 possible spectators. Individuals seeking tickets for the exhibition will no longer be received." The exhibition will stay at BAAM for three days and then take a tour around the 18 districts and counties in Beijing. Beijing residents can inquire about the exhibition's "whereabouts" by logging onto the official website of Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage.

37 museums offering free admission

On International Museum Day, 37 museums offer free admission in Beijing. The 10 already included in the first group of museums to open for free include the Memorial Museum of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the Military Training Hall in the Round City, Beijing Museum of Natural History and the Capital Museum.

Apart from the 37 museums that open for free, other museums in the city also offer preferential rates. For example, the Former Residence of Guo Moruo offers a 55 percent discount, the largest discount of all. City residents can log onto the official website of Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage to inquire about the details of the different preferential rates available at the museums. In addition, Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage will organize various activities, including multiple lectures on cultural relics and museum collections, as well as "Museum treasure hunts." When the time comes, a photography contest entitled "Museums seen through my camera" will be jointly organized by Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage, Beijing Daily Group and other organizations. The list of winners will then be unveiled with all the outstanding works sent to the Capital Museum to be put on public display.

Tickets to be obtained in advance for expert treasure appraisals

The annual treasure appraisal event will be held as usual this year. On May 15, a dozen of well-known experts in cultural relic appraisal, including Ye Peilan, Ma Xigui, Zhang Rulan and Wang Chuncheng, will gather at BAAM to provide treasure appraisals for enthusiastic collectors. A fee of 20 yuan will be charged for each object appraised. The experts will only appraise the object's authenticity and its age, but will not give an estimated market price or provide a printed appraisal certificate.

Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage reminds city residents that the appraisals will be carried out in an order based on the number printed on the tickets produced. Starting from 9:00 am on May 14, the numbered tickets are distributed at the north square of BAAM. The numbered tickets will fall into three categories of ceramics, painting and calligraphy, and miscellaneous items. A total of 150 tickets will be distributed for each category (100 tickets in the morning and 50 tickets in the afternoon). Any person wanting to obtain a ticket shall do so by showing valid credentials and each ticket will only allow for three objects to be appraised. Each person is limited to one ticket. Ticket distribution will continue until there are none left.