Shan Jixiang, director of the Palace Museum, gave a speech after the signing ceremony of a strategic cooperation agreement between the museum and Southeast University, stating that there are currently 1,807,558 cultural relics in the museum.

A documentary, "Masters in Forbidden City," drew public attention to the work of restorers. Owing to publicity from the documentary, the 60 vacancies at the museum are now being pursued by 15,000 applicants.

Shan pointed out that more than 10,000 relics are exhibited in over 70 exhibition halls of the Palace Museum every year, so it is understandable that no tourist has seen all the antiques. There are 231 categories of preserved cultural relics and 93.2 percent of them are precious national treasures.

There are 9,371 rooms in the museum. Shan said that 80 percent of the total area will be opened to the public by 2020, and 85 percent by 2025. He suggested that tourists travel along the east or west path instead of the more common center path, so as to view the museum from a different angle for a change.