Beijing plans large repair project for Forbidden City

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 ◆ Beijing plans large repair project for Forbidden City

Beijing's world-famous Palace Museum will soon get its biggest facelift in nearly a century ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games.

A monumental repair project, estimated to be the largest in over 90 years, is aimed to restore the grandeur and magnificence of the Palace Museum.

The Palace Museum was founded in 1420 and many of its timeworn buildings are in great need of renovation due to natural erosion and destructive human activities, said Jin Hongkui of the State Bureau of Cultural Relics.

Surveying and mapping work, the first stage in the project, will start in the near future, but the detailed working plan is still under discussion. Experts will first select closed buildings to initiate experimental repairs.

The application of architectural technology and selection matching building materials were the biggest challenges to experts in charge of the project, and building new exhibition halls to display the stored ancient treasures is another focus of the project, the newspaper quoted Jin as saying.

The Palace Museum has a collection of millions of treasures in the imperial palaces of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties, but only a small part of the huge collection has been displayed, due to the limited space in the current exhibition halls.

The construction of new exhibition halls would solve problems such as the lack of space and poor exhibition and storage conditions.