It should not have taken so long, but finally it has arrived. Museums and memorial halls listed as national patriotism education bases will open for free, says a circular jointly issued by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the Ministries of Finance and Culture, and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage on January 23.
In the beginning of 2008, the news of opening more museums, memorial halls and national patriotism education bases for free caused a tremble in the public.
The policy has been welcomed by the people. The Hubei Province Museum began free admission last November, and received 250,000 visitors in the first two months, almost the same as in the whole 2006.
Going to museum has become the hottest choice for spending the week-long holidays since the recent Chinese New Year. Many parents took their children to visit to widen their field of vision.
People cast their accounts. A visitor said to the journalist that in the past the museum tickets of Memorial of Zhou Enlai and Deng Yingchao cost 65 yuan for their family visit just once. But now the charge is free, so he took 7 family members come here to see the two national giants.
However, who will pay the bill? Actually the outlay for free enter museum is a problem for even a superpower –the US still debates over free museums. Usually, governments need to offer lots of financial support to museums. Only The British Museum could get more than 3 billion pounds from government every year.
China’s central government will offer funding to museums and memorial halls to support their operating expenses amid a drive to encourage more of these venues to offer free admission, according to statement from a senior official.
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