"New methods have been made to keep visitors in a good mood," Shan Jixiang, director of the Palace Museum, said.

"However, I still strongly recommend to visitors that they do not only focus on a single piece of artwork and blindly follow others to join in the queue," he said. "The other paintings are all top-tier treasures, which are also rare to see."

Bai Jianjian, a Beijing-based office worker and a frequent museum visitor, said," The quota is scientific. That kept order in the entire museum. I can visit other parts of the museum before my turn to see A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains."

The number-capping plan applies only to visitors of the central hall exhibiting A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains, and the number visiting western and eastern wings of the Meridian Gate Gallery is not restricted.

In 2015, when Alongside the River During the Qingming Festival, one of the best known Chinese paintings, also from the Song Dynasty, was exhibited in the Palace Museum, visitors stood in long lines to see it.

During the exhibition's final days, the Palace Museum had to prolong the hours of its exhibition hall past midnight, and staff even prepared bottled water and instant noodles for those waiting a long time to see the painting.