Beijing’s Palace Museum served as the royal palace from 1420 to 1911. Today, it houses over a million of the country’s cultural treasures. (Photo : Reuters)
The Palace Museum, located within the Forbidden City, opens four new areas this Saturday to the public for the first time since it was founded 90 years ago.
The areas include the Cining Palace, which was built mainly for the emperors' mothers and concubines; the wings of the Meridian and East Prosperity Gates; and the Baoyun Building, a warehouse built in 1918 as storage area for thousands of treasures.
The unveiling of the areas marks an increase in the areas of the museum that are open to the public, from 52 percent to 65 percent.
The Palace Museum, which served as the home of the emperors' families, is about twice the size of the Louvre in Paris.
"We hope to open more areas of the Forbidden City to allow visitors to see more treasures," Shang Jixiang, the Palace Museum curator, remarked.
Shan further revealed that less than 1 percent of the 1.8 million items in the museum's collections is currently available for public viewing.
According to Shan, the restoration of the areas' wooden architecture and collections required a lot of time and money. While under restoration, many areas of the museum are closed to the public.
For next year, Shan stated that the museum officials eye to increase to 76 percent the amount of area that are open to the public.
The opening of more areas is seen as a way to help relieve congestion caused by the daily 80,000-strong visitors.
"We hope visitors come to see the Forbidden City more for its displays rather than just for the architecture. Displays tell the stories behind the architecture and what happened hundreds of years ago," Shan added.
The unveiling of the areas, which house eight displays featuring treasures of the emperors, coincides with the 90th anniversary celebration of the Palace Museum.
