Construction of the new Capital Museum began Tuesday in Beijing.

It will purportedly be the largest cultural building constructed in the city since 1949.

On Baiyun Street, near the western point of Chang'an Avenue, the new museum aims to become a landmark construction in 21st-century Beijing.

Covering more than 60,000 square metres, the seven-storey building will open to the public in early 2005, said Han Yong, a leading official on the construction committee and would-be curator of the new museum.

Involving 780 million yuan (US$94 million), the building itself is expected to be finished by the end of 2003 and work on the interior will last another year, Han said.

The present Capital Museum opened in 1981 and found a temporary home in the Beijing Confucian Temple in Guozijian Street near the northern section of the Second Ring Road.

Due to its limited space and out-of-date equipment, the old Capital Museum is not a proper home for the more than 250,000 cultural exhibits on display and several more pieces in storage.

The old Capital Museum will be scrapped and the loaned place will be returned to the Confucian Temple.

The new museum will be armed with state-of-the-art technology and equipment. Its aim will be to become one of China's leading museums, said Cui Kai, project chief designer and vice-president of the China Architecture Design and Research Group.

Cui's group designed the museum alongside the French AREP Design Corporation.

The new museum is designed to have more than 10 exhibition halls, covering a total floor space of more than 30,000 square metres.

Liu Chaoying, director of the Museum Department with the Beijing Bureau of Cultural Relics, said the museum would be an important base for cultural research and education as well as a venue for leisure and tourism.

Itis expected to receive 6,000 visitors a day, Liu said.

A 10,000-square-metre cultural square mixed with green space is also expected be built near the museum, she said.

At present, Beijing has more than 100 museums, including some private ones. More museums are expected to be built in a few years to better protect and display relics from the ancient city's more than 3,000 years of history.

Beijing plans to increase the number of its museums to 150 by 2008, when the city will host the Olympics, Liu said.

(China Daily December 26, 2001)