Enthusiastic Australian tourists join locals queuing for the opening of Shanghai Museum March 10, the first day the museum and others in the city adopted a state-initiated free-admission policy. [Photo: Shanghai Daily]

Shanghai Museum began free admission Monday and staff was so overtaxed by the response that the institution has now set a visitors' ceiling of 5,000 at any given time.

The museum received 1,000 visitors in the first 30 minutes Monday morning.

The Site-Memorial of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Lu Xun Museum and the Former Residence of Chen Yun also stopped charging admission Monday.

"Normally Monday is quiet," Li Feng, the spokesman for Shanghai Museum, said Monday morning. "But now the number of visitors has already reached our normal number for the whole day."

In order to control the rush, the museum said each visitor must queue at the box office for a free ticket, while group visitors are asked to make a reservation in advance.

Li confirmed that visitors will be limited to 5,000 at a time and said not every exhibition at the museum will be free.

For example, the upcoming exhibition featuring the theme of the ancient Olympic Games that is on loan from the British Museum may cost about 20 yuan (US$2.80).

"We try our best to provide free entry to the public, but sometimes we still need to consider the budget, particularly for big exhibitions," the spokesman said.

Apart from permanent exhibitions, including ancient Chinese ceramics, furniture and sculptures, Shanghai Museum regularly puts on two or three big shows every year.

"I came here at nine o'clock this morning," said Wang Kaiqu, a thirtysomething migrant worker from Guizhou Province. "I learned the news on television ... and it is great."

All national museums and provincial museums under the management of the state department of cultural relics have been told to stop charging entry fees this year.

According to the state government notice, museums and memorial halls can still charge fees for special or guest exhibitions.

The Site-Memorial of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China Monday received about five times the normal number of daily visitors.

A total of 1,090 people took advantage of the free visit.

Some visitors queued up in front of the door before opening time, including a man aged of 88, who set off from his home in Pudong New Area at 7:30 am.

The memorial hall has a capacity of 2,000 visitors, so if numbers exceed this, officials will temporarily stop the handout of tickets and arrange for people to enter in manageable batches.

Liu Haisu Art Museum is also on the free list, but Shanghai Art Museum still charges an admission fee.

"We are not sure whether we will provide free entry to the public in the future as we are still waiting for the notice from the government," said Zhang Qin, deputy director at Shanghai Art Museum.

All venues are open from 9 am to 4 pm every day.