Palace Museum to train tour guides
Palace Museum announced on Wednesday that it will improve the quality of guided tours to this popular destination.
According to museum director Shan Jixiang, training programs for 600 officially registered tour guides from around the country will be held to improve their knowledge of the historic site.
Also known as the Forbidden City, the museum was the site of palaces in imperial China, from 1420 to 1911. It annually receives nearly 15 million visitors, the world's highest for a museum.
But for long, scores of unregistered guides who have led tour groups to the site may have hurt the museum's image owing to their poor knowledge of history and the lack of proper training, Shan said.
According to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development, while there are some 38,000 tour guides in the capital, many aren't professionally trained. And, only 30 percent of them are able to speak foreign languages, a requirement at the site because of the large number of tourists from other countries.
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