Cats living in the Palace Museum grounds, Beijing, China (video)

Here's a short video of cats living at the Palace Museum in Beijing. It is situated in the heart of the city. A record 17.5 million people visited the museum in 2018. It is within the Forbidden City. Entrance tickets currently cost $9.11. It is open between Tuesday and Sunday, 8:30 AM-4:30 PM. You can buy tickets on TripAdvisor. It gets a 4.5 out of five rating on their reviews (14,103 reviews).

The cats of the Palace Museum in Beijing. Screenshot.

It is one of the most comprehensive museums in China. The Forbidden City is nearly 600 years old. Construction was completed in 1420.

It is nice to see semi-feral or perhaps domestic cats inhabiting this venerated and famous museum in the Forbidden City. It indicates a tolerance towards street cats in China which I believed or still believe are generally badly tolerated. Although things are changing, I believe and hope.

I remember just before the Beijing Olympic Games when the authorities cleaned up the city by brutally rounding up and killing all the street cats with a complete disregard for animal welfare. 

They wanted to present a nice clean and organised city to visitors to the games from all corners of the world. At the same time, they brutally eradicated street dogs. This is in complete contrast what we see in this video.

I do not know the relationship between the museum management and these cats. It may be a gentle one with respect. I have no idea. Perhaps they cull these cats in the off-season as occurs in Greece but that is speculative and there is no evidence that I have found to state that this happens.