BEIJING - China is home to 3,589 museums, including 3,054 state-owned and 535 private museums, according to information released at a conference on cultural relics on Tuesday.

China will further promote free museum admission and improve the quality of displays and public services, Minister of Culture Cai Wu said at the conference.

Cai said cultural relics have gradually become a new focus for people's attention, and such relics can raise a city's appeal and greatly boost the development of the tourism industry.

In 2011, the Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, received 14 million visitors, twice the amount of visitors in 2002. During national holidays it welcomed even more visitors, with a record-high 182,000 people visiting the museum on a single day in 2011.

Li Xiaojie, head of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH), said the SACH has issued relevant documents to strengthen supervision over auctions of cultural relics and enhance management over antique markets and cultural relics-verification TV programs.