"I wish I could come here every day," said Zou Yuan, 26, who visited the China National Film Museum (CNFM) in northeastern Beijing for the first time on New Year's Day.

Zou, an editor at the 21st Century Publishing House, and her friends visited several exhibits at the CNFM and even took in a movie, "If You Are The One." She had high praise for the museum.

National Film Museum

The facility, officially opened on Feb. 10, 2007, used to charge 20 yuan (about $2.90) before it adopted a free admission policy in March, 2008.

"I learned that it became free at the beginning of last year, but its location deterred me," she said. The museum is more than 20 km from downtown Beijing, even farther than the renowned 798 Art Zone.

The CNFM is among one of the 1,000-strong museums in China to become free in 2008. Admission fees were abolished at national and provincial museums, except for a few world-famous cultural relics such as the Forbidden City and Summer Palace, both in Beijing.

"The free entry policy was intended to bring more people to share the cultural treasures in museums," said Zhang Bai, deputy head of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.

But the CNFM's visitor numbers did not soar as expected. About 1,000 people visit the facility daily on average, said Song Lichen,an official with the CNFM. The figure for 2007 was 500.

Things are very different at the Capital Museum, in downtown Beijing. The museum issues 4,000 admission tickets a day, but usually visitors have to reserve tickets three days in advance.

During the Olympics, there was a day when 14,700 people showed up, some hundreds of them lining up hours ahead of opening time.