A cat wanders around Forbidden City, Jan 20, 2014. The cats are seldom seen in visitors' areas, but according to Ma Guoqing, who works at Forbidden City, cats have been living inside the palace since ancient times, and some of the cats there now are direct descendents of the original palace cats. Some others are strays, but they are taken good care of at Forbidden City. They can also help control the rat population. [Photo/icpress.cn]

A total of 181 cats in the Palace Museum in Beijing patrol the Forbidden City at night to guards against rats and are considered the cutest employees of the museum by netizens.

The animals were stray cats sheltered by the museum and given names and numbers by the management, which has also funded sterilization surgery for the cats since 2009 at an annual cost of nearly 20,000 yuan ($3,263).

In ancient times, the palace had a cat management agency that selected cuter cats for the emperors and their concubines. Some of the cats now cared for by the museum might be the offspring of those long-gone palace cats and others probably slipped into the museum on their own.

According to the museum staff, the cats play an important role in guarding the museum by killing rats.