The management of the "ghost residence" - two desolate buildings at Beijing's Chaoyangmennei Street - has decided to limit visits to the compound No.81.

Limited visit to 'Ghost House'.[File photo]

The decision came as a soaring number of amateur adventurers rushed there for an exploratory trip, especially after the screening of the horror film The House That Never Dies (Jing Cheng 81 Hao) one week ago, the Beijing Morning Post reports.

Meng Qi from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Beijing - the current proprietor of the mansion - said no more than 10 tourists are allowed to stay in the buildings at the same time and that any entry at night would be banned due to safety concern.

Meng said the structure has been old and lacked maintenance, posing a severe threat to the safety of visitors.

A custodian has been employed to control the inflow of some hundred visitors every day.

The three-story Baroque-style compound was built in the 1800s and was put into use by American priests in 1910 as a language training center. It was renamed as California College in the 1930s and became the office of the Ministry of Civil Affairs in 1949.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Beijing gained the building's ownership in 1995.

According to Shi Hongxi, also from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Beijing, the buildings gradually became desolate in the late 1990s as no one would like to afford the high renovation cost after the ministry moved somewhere else.

The rumor that "there is a ghost haunting in the buildings" began spreading in 2000, attracting waves of curious adventures there.

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