‘Bureaucracy hindering efforts to maintain Forbidden City’
Palace Museum in Beijing says residency requirements should be eased to make it easier to retain and recruit specialised craftsmen who care for former imperial palace
The head of China’s famed Palace Museum has suggested granting Beijing household registration to skilled craftsmen who undertake the monumental task of renovating the historic complex.
The director of the Palace Museum, Shan Jixiang, said in an interview it was a challenge to retain skilled craftsmen, the news website Thepaper.cn reported.
Many of the elderly craftsmen are nearing retirement age, Shan said, and they are ineligible to stay on because they lack a Beijing household registration, known as a hukou.
As many as seven craftsmen specialising in refurbishing old architecture were slated to retire last year alone, the report said. Only after jumping through bureaucratic hoops was Shan able to keep them on.
