National theater favored by visitors in low season

BEIJING, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- China's National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA), also known as the national theater, remained a popular destination to visitors from home and abroad in low season, a theater official said Tuesday.

To meet the demand of visitors, the theater management had decided to maintain whole-day opening of the venue to visitors from November to the end of the year, said Wang Qun, a publicity official with the theater.

"We made the decision because the number of visitors is climbing steadily this year," said Wang.

The NCPA previously planned to shorten its current eight-hour opening time, from 9 a.m. to 5 p. m., by half in the last three months of the year, because the period from November to March has been considered to be slack season. The rest of the year, in contrary, is generally deemed as busy season.

The center had hosted 780,000 tourists in the first 10 months of this year. A visitor needs to pay 30 yuan (4.3 U. S. dollars) for an entrance ticket to tour the center, also dubbed "Egg Shell" due to its exterior shape, except for Mondays when it is closed.

"Given the increasing visitors, the supposed low season has turned out to be a busy one," Wang said.

"We have arranged diverse activities and exhibitions which lure more visitors to the center," said Wang.

The NCPA is among the new attractions in Beijing along with the National Stadium, or "Bird's Nest", the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics last year, and "Water Cube" , or National Aquatics Center.