Forbidden City to Add New Exhibition Hall

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 ◆ Forbidden City to Add New Exhibition Hall

Beijing's Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, hopes to build a new underground exhibition hall to display its ancient treasures.

The anticipated hall is about 30,000 square meters and more than a million exhibits of ancient treasures are expected to be displayed in the hall, China Daily reported recently.

The Palace Museum, with a collection of millions of treasures in the imperial palaces of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, was given State cultural heritage protection in 1949 and listed as a world cultural heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)in 1987.

Only a small part of the huge collection has been displayed at the Palace Museum, while most items have to be stored in an underground storehouse due to the limited space in the current exhibition halls, according to the newspaper.

Experts said the construction of a separate exhibition hall for the treasures would be an effective way of solving problems such as the lack of space and poor exhibition conditions. The new hall will probably be built underground.

Further discussions and assessments will decide on the specific plan, according to a staff member at the museum, China Daily said.