TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The National Palace Museum (NPM) will open its doors on 10 Mondays this year to meet the influx of visitors amid a post-COVID recovery, reports said Saturday (April 29).

The number of visitors to its main museum in Taipei City so far this year reached 416,836, or the same number as for the whole year of 2021, during the height of the pandemic, UDN reported. The 416,837th visitor and five other visitors before and after each received a picture book, a flash drive in the shape of its famous Jadeite Cabbage, and a bag of chips.

The total of 300,865 visitors in March 2023 amounted to almost double the number of entrants, according to officials at the museum, one of the world’s largest repositories of ancient Chinese and Asian art. Visitors from South Korea led the way, followed by Japanese, in a marked revival of foreign travel.

As a result of the surging interest, the museum would adjust its policy of closing on Mondays, and open for business on 10 Mondays during the rest of the year, officials announced. May 1 will be the first in the series to welcome visitors.

NPM officials said they had positive expectations for visits by cruise travelers, with at least 1 million likely to tour the museum this year, per UDN. Cruise passengers were also known as generous consumers, with some spending as much as NT$600,000 (US$19,500) to NT$1 million.