More than 90 percent of public cultural venues in Shanghai remained open to the public during the Spring Festival, serving nearly 730,000 visitors, up 47 percent from the same period last year.

The city's 52 public culture centers and libraries remained open to citizens, receiving about 315,000 visitors during the Lunar New Year period, which fell on February 18 to 24.

Shanghai Art Museum, which didn't charge an admission fee for the first 3 days during the previous Spring Festival, extended its free service to cover the whole holiday this year. Four exhibitions were held during the holiday, a real feast for art lovers.

Cultural events featuring New Year's tradition or customs arranged by public cultural sites were particularly popular among locals.

The city plans to adopt the opening hours and service quality of public cultural venues as a main criterion for the performance of district and county-level cultural bureaus. As well, people working in public cultural sites will receive training this year to better serve the public next year.

(CRI.com March 7, 2007)