China's government is allocating CN¥545m (US$85.8m, €72.2m, £63.2m) in an effort to make some of the country's top science museums free-to-visit.
The money, allocated by the Ministry of Finance, will "ensure" free entry into a number of science museums across China.
The move is the continuation of a policy launched in 2015. Between 2015 and 2016, CN¥897m (€119m, £104m) was split between 123 selected science museums, with entry fees for those institutions scrapped. In 2017, a further CN¥553m (US$87.1m, €73.3m) was granted to 138 selected science museums for the same reason.
Popular destinations – primarily in Beijing and Shanghai – are not included as part of the package, with attractions such as the China Science and Technology Museum already nearing capacity. Such a move, says the government, means more popular museums could not accommodate the "drastic surges" in visitor numbers.
China has more than 3,500 museums – including over 3,000 state-owned museums. Among its most popular in the science category are the China Science and Technology Museum in Beijing, which welcomes around 4 million visitors each year, and the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, which draws upwards of 3.5 million people annually. Outside of Beijing and Shanghai, Chongqin's Science and Technology Museum welcomes more than 2.8 million people through its doors each year.
