BEIJING - About 30,000 people visited the National Museum of China on Sunday, a record high after it reopened in March with a free admission policy following renovations.

The museum has witnessed a large increase in the number of visitors since it abolished its 20-yuan ($3.13) entrance fee.

"I would not have come here if it were not for free," Yang Shucheng, a 65-year-old retiree, told Xinhua News Agency.

Like the National Museum, most of the museums and memorial sites administrated by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage no longer charge admission fees after the central government issued a notice in January 2008 calling for free admission to all museums and memorial sites.

To cover the museums' loss of revenue the central government has allocated 2 billion yuan in subsidies to the museums.

Cheng Jianzheng, curator of the Shaanxi Historical Museum, one of the eight major museums in China, told Xinhua that the museum's infrastructure and services had improved greatly since it received a subsidy of 50 million yuan from the central and provincial governments.

However, the free admissions policy has also caused problems with some museums having difficulties coping with the large increase in the number of visitors and some smaller museums failing to attract as many visitors as expected.

"The free admissions policy is not enough, we need to be more innovative," said Song Xiangguang, a professor with Peking University.Meanwhile, other museums that still charge fees are also expecting a surge in the number of visitors during the week-long National Day holiday.

The Palace Museum in Beijing introduced a series of measures for the holiday this year, such as only allowing 80,000 visitors a day, after more than 620,000 people visited the museum during the National Day holiday in 2010.

Xinhua contributed to this story.