Tickets for Beijing's Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, were sold out for Monday after over 20,000 passes were purchased at the entrance within two hours of the ticketing booth opening its doors at 7:30 in the morning.

Around 60,000 pre-sale tickets for today’s entry into the museum were also sold out online as of Sunday afternoon, which marked the second day of the seven-day National Day holiday this year.

It is estimated that the amount of visitors sweeping into the scenic spot have already added up to 240,000 since the beginning of this year’s National Day break, with some 82,000 people visiting on October 1 alone.

The Forbidden City, one of the top tourist attractions in the world with a long-established history and sublime imperial glamour, put a cap on its maximum daily capacity at 80,000 visitors since June, 2015, in a bid to address the ever-growing concerns over damages to relics brought by overloaded tourists, following a record high of 180,000 people packing into the spot on October 2, 2012, which reportedly largely ruined the antiques and spoiled people’s travel experience.

In an attempt to further disperse tourist flows, the palace has also expanded the region open to the public from 52% of its total coverage in 2014 to 76% in 2016.

Although tickets could be accessed online, staff members of the City have suggested that tourists purchase tickets online ahead of their visits to avoid waiting for a long time in lines.

Thousands of tourists during the first three days of the national holiday were seen buying tickets in good order at the entrance of the Forbidden City thanks to the effective capacity restrictive measures, along with the online ticket purchasing platforms.