Cultural relics in the Hunan Museum Photo: VCG

 Many museums throughout China have been completely booked for the five-day May Day holiday that starts on Saturday. Some of the official websites for these museums even crashed as too many netizens rushed to grab tickets.

Some netizens said that they set alarms for midnight to get tickets, but still didn't manage to beat the rush.

"I have been able to grab tickets for concerts, musical dramas and the Palace Museum, but was beaten by the Hunan Museum," a netizen who failed to grab tickets for the provincial museum of Hunan for the May Day holiday complained on Sina Weibo.

The lack of tickets for the Hunan Museum has become a trending topic on Sina Weibo.

Due to COVID-19 pandemic measures, the Hunan Museum only provides online real-name booking for individuals, with a daily limit of 9,000 tickets. Visitors can book tickets up to seven days in advance on the museum's official website or WeChat account.

More than 40,000 tourists are expected to visit the museum during the holiday according to current bookings.

The same number of tourists are also expected to visit Beijing's National Museum during the holiday, while more than 70,000 are expected at the Nanjing Museum in Jiangsu Province. 

The Suzhou Museum in East China's Jiangsu Province has also been booked solid through the holiday and the Shaanxi History Museum, which is free, has proven so popular that even the day after the holiday ends has been booked solid. 

A tour guide surnamed Liu told the Beijing Youth Daily that it is common for tourists to concentrate on certain types of tourist attractions during holidays such as May Day, and that museums, which are a must-see for many tourists with children during the holidays, can quickly fill up.

"When I visit an unfamiliar place, I like to head to local museums first as museums are the best places to learn about local history, customs and people's lives," a Beijing resident surnamed Meng, who plans to go to Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, for the holiday, told the Global Times.

She said that she has booked tickets for the Sichuan and Chengdu museums and hopes that her time at the two venues will be interesting.

Tickets for the Palace Museum, which is housed in Beijing's Forbidden City, have also sold out, leading to some special tickets being sold for almost 1,300 yuan ($200) by scalpers.

Some analysts note that the difficulty to book tickets reflects people's love for traditional Chinese culture.