Visitors to the newly constructed Hong Kong Palace Museum on the metropolis’s artwork hub in West Kowloon might pay wherever from HK$50 to HK$120 (RM28 to RM68) for an entry ticket, with the venue anticipated to open on July 2.
The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority not too long ago revealed the museum would open on July 2 as a key a part of celebrations to commemorate the twenty fifth anniversary of the town’s return to Chinese rule.
The announcement got here as a prime official from the district additionally spoke in regards to the arts hub’s dire monetary scenario, with the authority underneath stress to hunt additional funding from the federal government after receiving an endowment of HK$21.6bil (RM12bil) in 2008.
Anyone seeking to go to the museum can e book their tickets on-line from June 14, with purchases additionally doable on different platforms corresponding to Klook, China Travel and Alibaba’s tour companies supplier Fliggy.
The walk-in buy of tickets won’t be allowed.
Betty Fung Ching Suk-yee, the district authority’s chief govt, stated the doorway charges have been inexpensive and 150,000 tickets, or 10 per cent of these set to be issued within the first 12 months of the venue’s launch, could be given away to underprivileged residents.
“While the tickets will help the income of the museum, we will sort out its long-term financial viability,” she stated.
Fung stated the museum had already managed to cowl about half of its expenditure for the interval between 2023 and 2025 by ticketing gross sales and company sponsorship.
She additionally revealed the general monetary standing of the West Kowloon Cultural District growth had taken a worrying flip as a result of delayed completion of business and resort buildings, which had affected the potential earnings from such tasks. Fung added that the Covid-19 pandemic had additionally contributed to the issue.
“Our financial status is very dire and we are doing whatever we can to improve the situation,” she stated.
The district authority is anticipated to offer additional particulars on its monetary well being throughout a Legislative Council panel subsequent Monday.
Louis Ng Chi-wa, the director of the Hong Kong Palace Museum, in the meantime, agreed the ticket costs weren’t costly, evaluating them to entrance charges for world-renowned areas such because the HK$70 (RM39) admission value for the Beijing’s Palace Museum and the HK$125 (RM70) cost to go to the Louvre Museum in Paris.
“Visitors’ experience will be worth more than HK$120 (RM68),” he stated.
The ticket costs are comparable with the doorway charges of HK$120 (RM68) for adults and HK$60 (RM34) for concessions on the M+ Museum, a contemporary artwork museum within the West Kowloon Cultural District that was opened in November final 12 months.
The Hong Kong Palace Museum will initially accommodate solely 5,000 folks per day within the first month of opening to make sure compliance with the town’s coronavirus curbs.
The restrict was additionally imposed to make sure folks visited the location after making a reserving, with the newly opened M+ beforehand reporting that 30 per cent of those that purchased tickets had not proven up.
The variety of folks in a position to be admitted to the Hong Kong Palace Museum each day can be elevated to 7,000 after the primary month.
Admission to the Hong Kong Palace Museum can be free on Wednesdays for the primary 12 months, with the venue closing on Tuesdays in alignment with the coverage for M+.
Residents have stated they’re nonetheless ready to see what the museum has to supply, with some planning to make the most of the venue’s free entry days.
“If I was going by myself, then, of course, I would go on the days where I do not need to pay,” stated Willy Yan, a retiree in his 60s.
But Yan stated he would take into account paying for a ticket if he was visiting the museum with his household or pals, including he would test suggestions from different guests earlier than making a closing choice.
Winnie Lee, a 21-year-old college pupil, additionally stated she would choose to go to the venue on a free entry day.
“If there was no special reason and I was just going to have a look, I wouldn’t want to pay so much money,” Lee stated.
Very little info revealed in regards to the Palace Museum had piqued her curiosity, she stated, with the coed preferring M+.
“I have yet to see anything that would make it worth the HK$50 (RM28) entry fee,” she stated.
The museum is already within the superior preparation levels for one in every of its exhibitions, with 941 Chinese antiques and artwork items shipped to Hong Kong on Sunday as a mortgage from its counterpart in Beijing, which is situated within the Forbidden City.
The choice got here from greater than 1.86 million works within the Beijing assortment, together with 166 “grade one” objects categorized as “national treasures”.
The unprecedented mortgage can also be among the many largest and most interesting the Beijing museum has ever offered to a different cultural establishment exterior mainland China since its institution some 97 years in the past, a Hong Kong Palace Museum spokesman stated.
The antiques embrace work, calligraphy, bronzes, ceramics, jades, metalwork, enamelware, lacquers, seals, costumes and textiles, jewelry, uncommon books and structure. They can be proven in 9 galleries on the venue for a couple of 12 months.
It stays unknown if Chinese President Xi Jinping will go to Hong Kong to supervise the inauguration of the town’s subsequent administration on July 1, or if he would additionally officiate the opening of the museum.
Funded by a HK$3.5bil (RM1.9bil) donation from the Hong Kong Jockey Club, the new attraction is a collaboration between the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority and the Palace Museum in Beijing. It took about three years to finish.
The Hong Kong Palace Museum and M+ are the primary points of interest of the 40ha, multibillion-dollar West Kowloon Cultural District growth, designed as a world-class arts hub. – South China Morning Post/Asia News Network
