故宫首开夜场门票秒空官网崩溃 Palace Museum website overwhelmed by night tour demand

Night view of Palace Museum [Photo: VCG]

"Palace Museum will extend its opening hours(开放时间 kāifàng shíjiān) to the evening(晚上 wǎnshàng) for the first time for two consecutive nights in celebration of this year's Lantern Festival(元宵节 yuánxiāo jié)," museum curator Shan Jixiang said at an event on Saturday.

The museum's official website(官网 guānwǎng) also announced it would host a "Lantern Festival night tour" cultural event on Feb 19 and 20, and visitors can make the appointment(预约 yùyuē) for the tour on Feb 17 and 18 respectively with the online ticket booking system.

Night view of Corner Tower, Palace Museum [Photo: VCG]

It marks the first time the museum will be open to the public for free(免费 miǎnfèi) at night for the past 94 years, and the first time the large-scale ancient buildings in the Forbidden City will be decorated with lights.

Palace Museum website crashes due to demand.[Photo: IC]

After this announcement, tickets for Feb 19 sold out within ten minutes. Quite a few people have pinned their hopes on the second appointment.

But in the middle of the night the ticket booking system broke down(崩溃 bēngkuì) — too many people visited the website at the same time. The crash of the website has disappointed many visitors, yet it shows the appeal(吸引 xīyǐn) of the Palace Museum.

Beijing embraces this winter's third snowfall on Feb 14, and lots of people choose to see snow scenery at the Palace Museum. [Photo: chinadaily.com.cn]

Also, "Night tour of Palace Museum" has become one of the hottest topics(热门话题 rèmén huàtí) on China's Twitter-like platform Sina Weibo at present, attaining more than 340 million hits among the online users.

(Story includes material sourced from chinadaily.com.cn)

重点词汇 Key word:

空

• <形容词 adj.> empty; unoccupied
  E.g. Jiē shàng kōng wú yīrén.
  街上空无一人。
  There's not a single soul in the street.

• <名词 n.> sky
  E.g. Qìqiú huǎn huǎn shēng shàng tiānkōng.
  气球缓缓升上天空。
  The balloon rose up slowly into the air.

• <副词 adv.> for nothing; in vain
  E.g. Máng le bàntiān jiéguǒ shì yīchǎngkōng.
  忙了半天结果是一场空。
  Our efforts have come to nothing.