A tourist who carved characters on a large cauldron in Beijing's Palace Museum days ago has triggered intense anger online.

An employee at the Palace Museum, or the Forbidden City, found characters carved on the cauldron outside the Gate of Supreme Harmony in the palace. The characters stated, "Liang Qiqi was here."

Failing to find the culprit, the staff member posted a picture of the cauldron on micro-blogging site Sina Weibo.

Internet users condemned the vandal for not respecting cultural relics.

The employee said he wanted to remind the public of the importance of protecting cultural relics.

"It's irresponsible to carve your name on ancient relics," he said. "The Palace Museum receives tourists from all over the world and we sincerely hope visitors can treasure the objects left by our ancestors."