MUSEUMS AND MOVIES

Going to museums has become a trendy thing to do during the holidays in China. A popular getaway this year was the Palace Museum where a special exhibition was staged to provide an immersive royal experience for visitors, with the entire Forbidden City adorned with newly-restored ancient royal lanterns and spring couplets, including a rare collection of the Chinese character "Fu," meaning happiness and good luck, written by five Qing Dynasty emperors.

The former imperial palace was so popular that all tickets during the Spring Festival holiday had been booked in advance.

Statistics from the Ministry of Commerce showed the museum hosted nearly half a million visitors during the holiday.

Shan Jixiang, curator of the Palace Museum, said he hopes more Chinese will put museum tours on their must-do Spring Festival list alongside the Lunar New Year's Eve family reunion dinner, annual TV gala and watching films.

Elsewhere in China, public enthusiasm for museums ran equally high. In central China, the Henan Museum received about 8,000 visits on Feb. 6, the second day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, twice the figure of a regular weekend day.

Many museums staged exhibitions featuring pigs, the Chinese Zodiac animal of the new year. A pig-shaped bronze vessel, which dates back more than 3,000 years, is on display for the first time in the Shanghai Museum.

Although watching Lunar New Year blockbusters has long been a tradition, Chinese audiences were particularly excited this year because of the debut of a domestic sci-fi blockbuster titled "The Wandering Earth" on Feb. 5.

As of 7:00 pm Sunday, the film had earned over 1.94 billion yuan, becoming the winner of the Chinese box office during the holiday, according to Maoyan, a professional box office tracker.

Second place went to Ning Hao's "Crazy Alien," which had gained nearly 1.42 billion yuan by 7:00 pm Sunday, followed by Han Han's "Pegasus" that has taken in over 1 billion yuan.

The total Chinese box office during the holiday exceeded 5 billion yuan, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Chen Han, a data analyst with China UnionPay, said that dining, shopping, traveling and entertainment had led this year's festival consumption and that their contribution had grown by 4.4 percentage points.

Compared with previous Spring Festival holidays, Chinese people were more willing to spend more for either the elderly, children or themselves. Another spotlight was the growing cultural entertainment and tourism consumption, Chen said.