BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- China will allocate 553 million yuan (about 81.5 million U.S. dollars) in 2017 to support the scrapping of entrance fees for selected science museums, the Ministry of Finance said Wednesday.

The money will ensure entry into 138 selected science museums is free of charge.

China started to support science museums opening their doors for free in 2015.

From 2015 to 2016, China allocated a total of 897 million yuan to 123 selected science museums to scrap entrance fees.

The China Association for Science and Technology has said it hopes that one day all science museums will be free.

However, popular destinations such as China Science and Technology Museum will not be free, as there is concern that already crowded museums could not accommodate drastic surges in visitor numbers.