[CND, 05/28/02] The National Cultural Relics Bureau has proposed to build a huge national museum next to Tiananmen Square, the South China Morning Post reported on Monday, quoting the Xinwen Zhoukan weekly magazine.
According to ZHANG Wenbin, chief of the bureau and a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the new museum would be located on the eastern side of Tiananmen Square and is proposed to start construction in 2006.
A great number of historical, cultural, artistic, folklore and minority items will be held in the 200,000 square meters facility, which almost triples the size of 65,000 square meters of the Revolutionary and History museums. Foreign exhibits can also be held inside the museum.
Zhang said Beijing had been behind Shanghai and Xi'an in terms of museum quality. The Revolutionary and History museums, which were built in the late 1959, are very old both in design and facility. The two museums, however, would be demolished. (LIU Weijun)
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