The Palace Museum will open its first nursing room this summer.
The nursing room is located in the Qianqingmen Plaza, at a corner close to the Longzong Gate.
"There are [nursing rooms] at airports and train stations, so there should be some at the museums too," Shan Jixiang, the curator of the Palace Museum, said. "[There are] visitors carrying babies. It takes a long time to visit the Palace Museum; what if the children get hungry and the mothers want to rest?"
In addition, it is not an easy place for mothers to breastfeed their babies.
Once it was announced that the nursing rooms are set to be placed in the Qianqingmen Plaza, Shan further explained, "When people walk through the place, most of them will be tired. There is a backyard behind it which will be made into a space for children that will have flowers, grass and playground facilities. This way, children can eat some snacks, play and listen to some stories while their parents rest."
While it is still under construction, the finished space will cover several hundred square meters and have independent nursing rooms.
This is not the first time that the Palace Museum has made changes to bring more convenience to the millions of visitors each year.
Earlier this year, the museum added 1,750 well lids to create a smoother surface, added barrier-free structures for the disabled and built 1,500 benches around the trees to provide seats for visitors.
Also, after researching the use of toilets between male and female visitors, the Palace Museum amended the proportion of toilets to one male toilet to every three women's toilets.
All of these actions, in Shan's opinion, are a management revolution.
"We are considering if our work should center on our management or on the convenience of visitors. If it is the latter, everything can change," Shan said.
According to Chinese media reports, an average of 80,000 tourists visited the Palace Museum every day during this year's May Day holidays.
